WE ARE WHERE WE ALL BELONG

I do not know what happened

before I became a singer, yet Agbozo says

we are where we all belong on this earth

 

they say the dog does not birth a child in public,

to whom should I give my song in this hot noonday

when some say I should cover my face with my hands

that good things of this world some have it others don’t

that is why Agbayiza tells the wayfarers

we are at where we all belong on this earth

 

yesterday, I carried my sorrows on my shoulders

like a net but I met an evil god on the sea at Azizanu

so I came home with my sorrows on my shoulders

and told the people in the town that the sea was bad

Agbayiza, listen to me, in the middle of my speech

all mad dogs of Agbogbloshie chased me to Ghostland

 

The royal palm says he does not talk in vain

it is the whirlwind that provoked him

what made bats to hide in eaves and come out at night

is known only to the Creator God and not us

 

Kofiloto, lets cry together, I’m a pilgrim of sorrow

tossed in this wide world with nobody to hear me

they say what happened to you yesterday

and your wives run away to marry strangers

has become the flood waters ravaging my farmstead

and now people want the son of the eagle

to turn a beggar in the market square

 

Why is Afitor and her people bellowing, yearling fuming

like a hippo, like a voice of thunder angry like a smallpox god

terrorizing people in every stead, in every market square

maybe I’m like a swallow imprisoned in the rafters of the rich

and they want to kill it and throw it onto the dunghill

but Agbozo, when the sea dries can’t you walk home

or when the market is closed don’t the sellers go home

it's always the useless dancer who blames the drummers

 

Akpalu once said, he lives his life in an anthill

That termites are his next door neighbors

Should anyone wish to love him that person should know

He is not alone, he lives with termites in his anthill

You said this tree is barren; it has no shade for your tired self

Why then are you wailing that it denied you comfort in the sun

Or maybe the wailing is for your regrets

 

It was Kamasa who said he wished the diviner could tell him

why one mother gave birth to four children

one is Aɖuefunawo, another is Gbɔgblɔbu,

one is Deafeamekpɔ and the other is Enuemekpe

Nɔvinyewo, we are where we all belong on this earth

when they birth me the priest did not know I’ll survive

so you too is surprised I didn’t turn a beggar at the market square