A Comfortable Unease

Ambitions are somewhat tempered
In this autumnal season
The earlier aspirations slightly tarnished
But still remain well within reach
Clear-eyed about the task ahead,
The obstacles will be surmounted
The searcher's gaze resolute and firmly set
Focused on the promise of better days
Traveling light, with bags at the ready
The journey presents itself as ever
Proceeding on the road to freedom

II.

Off kilter living is our lot, it seems
A pose of preemptive cynicism readied

Prescience perhaps, and lessons learned
And so we make the best of things

Caution, my kin, take heed
For fairweather friends loom

Such is our jaundiced perspective
The sense of dislocation prevails

That we are guests in our own lives
And truly behold the shock of the familiar

We make homes for friends alike and visitors
As we cross these boundaries seeking shelter

Weapons of restraint. Contra provocation
We turn to conversation, and quiet reflection

Yet we were left unrequited, aching with yearning
While, beneath the surface, understanding was on hand

We were promised: our liminal dreams would be fulfilled
Still we engage in the struggle, if they would only listen

The burden of early sacrifice, in this, our quiet revolution
Has left an impact that can only be discerned in the stillness in time

The broad outlines emerge of a duty of care, if not a philosophy
And so pause, momentarily, to trace the reflections in the mirror

It's fine to affect hospitality, for it doesn't cost you none
Most of all, speak softly, my friend, speak softly, your time will come

III.

The sad fact of our fraught modernity remains
Our sole assurance in this life of precarity
Is to live out elusive dreams of normalcy

Good enough, some say, good enough
Hold them to their precious words
We heard of liberty and equal protection

Yet experience has taught us harsh lessons
All their rules were made to be broken
And the inconvenient ones rewritten at will

Who do the laws serve? We deserve an answer
Justice and freedom are the heart of the matter
The rhetoric ought to be more than propaganda

Presented with the reality of a fickle state
Replete with escape clauses and underlying conditions
We recognize that we tread a fine line of liability

So we made our peace with this life
Consoled with a comfortable unease
But vigilant, we will bear witness

A Comfortable Unease, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• (If You Ain't) Comfortable by Lynden David Hall
• Welcome to the Colored Section by Donnie
• It Could Happen to You by Ahmad Jamal
• Blue 7 by Sonny Rollins
• Electric Relaxation by A Tribe Called Quest
• The Colored Section by Donnie
• Umi Says by Mos Def
• Cry Together by The O'Jays

See previously: The Fleeting Canvas

File under: culture, observation, perception, displacement, immigration, poetry, toli

Writing log. June 2, 2022

Gunboat Diplomacy

A kiss in a shadow
Trying to catch the wind
The person who tied the bell must untie it

Gunboats on the Pearl River
Treasures loaded onto their wagons
Silver was drained from our veins

Torches in the Summer Palace
Countless lives lost under the lie of "Fair Trade"
Today, those same powers that pushed opium
Now threaten with trade wars and blockades

We're going to live together very happily
So face up to the rational voices
The shackles you cast will clasp your own wrists


After Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Ministry of Commerce spokesman, He Yadong (April 23, 2025)

Diplomacy, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Diplomacy by BB Seaton
• English diplomacy by Mighty Sparrow
• Diplomacy by Lucky Clover
• A different kind of diplomacy by Michael McEvoy

Bonus beats: Learn Chinese by Jin

See previously: A Very Beautiful Thing and Facilitate

File under: humour, satire, language, politics, power, culture, observation, perception, USA, China, history, Great Game, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 24, 2025

Location is Everything

I took it as an omen perhaps, or a propitious sign
When the then-fiancée defended her PhD dissertation
The setting where scholars had their meeting of minds
The culmination of her Harvard education was in Room 419
Others remarked wryly about the uncanny juxtaposition
Real estate agents would say: location, location, location

Nine months later, marital bliss
The Wife's first academic trip
Butterflies, a case of separation anxiety
For this newly minted professor of African history
Put your game face on, it's about dollars and sense
Modernity too, this was the Science in Africa conference
Auspicious, and a touch surprising, but then what can you do?
It turned out that the proceedings were held in Edinburgh zoo

Location is Everything, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Proper Education by Mikey Dread
• Side by Side by Dianne Reeves
• Africa by Toto
• Sound Education by I Roy
• At the Zoo by Simon and Garfunkel
• Location is Everything by Daniel G. Harmann

File under: humour, culture, observation, perception, juxtaposition, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 29, 2022

Facilitate

It wasn't easy, but this was the government lawyer's brief:
The word facilitate. A novel argument about its meaning
Where it applied and, indeed, how and to whom
And whether it was of solely domestic applicability

And if it seemed obvious to the Court that there was a plain meaning
His own job was to fully explain the proper, legal interpretation
For he evinced great concern for the separation of powers and its extent
And a justifiable worry for an unseemly unconstitutional precedent

That the judiciary in the shape of the present court
Was arrogating for itself the realm of executive power was self-evident
Overreaching and inserting itself where it should not
Infringing wholesale on the prerogative of the president

These were strange days of ever more outrageous claims
Stretching past the outer bounds of plausibility and shame
When norms were being shattered daily, and rules broken with impunity
Regulations glossed and discarded willy-nilly, testing the very limits of propriety

The government lawyer advanced his preferred reading
That his clients were in full compliance with the court's ruling
For their actions, after all, made it exceedingly clear
They would "remove any domestic obstacles
That would otherwise impede the alien's ability to return here"

But it turned out that further discretion was for the weak
And so the government attorney stuck to his emphatic brief
He concluded, the most powerful government in the world couldn't do a thing
As a matter of law, and in practice, the word facilitate didn't mean anything

Facilitate, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Can't do nuttin' for ya man by Public Enemy
• Easier said than done by Angie Stone
• Time's a wastin by Erykah Badu
• Ain't that easy by D'Angelo
• Gettin in the way by Jill Scott
• Obey by Dwele
• Not up to me by Frida Farrell
• Obstruction by Gabo Rio
• It don't mean a thing by Omar

Bonus beats: Objection overruled by Gregory Isaacs and My prerogative by Bobby Brown


After: Trump administration says it is not required to help wrongly deported man return to US

...

I seem to be departing from my normal practice of delayed publishing. I suppose the above will not be as topical if it were to be published as initially scheduled in 2036. Let me know if I should continue preempting the vault. I am somewhat tickled that the previous piece, entitled Expulsion Orders, written three years ago, mined somewhat similar terrain

File under: language, law, humour, satire, rogues, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, hatchet job, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 16, 2025

Expulsion Orders

For some, this was the second go-round, a reprise of the upheaval
The scenes at the ports, palpable despair, teeming, almost primeval
When the land borders briefly opened, a brave few chose that route
A long, dangerous journey with opportunist predators to boot

You would think there would be sympathy for these returning wretched
Yet the provisional government called them "recalcitrant and hollow-headed"
You see, earlier on, most had simply voted with their feet
Foregoing chaos, they'd packed their bags and left the country

Now, exiled souls twice removed, this was their homecoming
Leaving in a hurry, running away with just what they could carry
Tough love from the authorities on both ends, no tears for aliens
And extra scrutiny at the border, "non-Ghanaians are not welcome"

Ghana must go is how the trauma is recorded in folk memory
The damage was done and, worse, it was all so unnecessary
But such is the fraught and bitter legacy of the expulsion orders
As goes the proverb, try not to die when you are surrounded by vultures

Anybody could have told the authorities in Lagos that is is impossible to evacuate 700,000 (their own estimated figure) under their own imposed stringent conditions, within the period of one week that they opened the land borders

— Talking Drums May 1985

Talking Drums, May 20, 1985

Expulsion Orders, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify)

• Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers
• We trying to stay alive by Wyclef Jean
• Refugee Rolling by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
• The Exodus has Begun by Prince & the New Power Generation
• Get out of Town by Ella Fitzgerald
• Refugees by Gerard Musgrave
• Go Home by Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster
• Pitche Mi by Youssou Ndour & Super Etoile de Dakar
  stately and mournful from the excellent contemporaneous album, Immigrés

Bonus beats: Shame on me by Alexander O'Neal

See previously Bags and Stamps

File under: Ghana, Nigeria, culture, immigration, displacement, exile, memory, Africa, history, politics, dictator, coup, loss, observation, perception, refugee, Things Fall Apart, Ghana must go, poetry, toli

Writing log: August 17, 2022

Blues Grinder

Nose to the grindstone
The mortar of regret
The days stretch, unending
Shackles untethered,
Healing foregone
A sameness, repetition
The blues grinder in effect

Late at night, exhaustion
Barely able to catch a breath
Restless spirit, searching
The feeling of being alone
Hopeless cause,
Unbearable odds
Still, the truth is our sanctuary

Blues Grinder, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Blues Grinder by Ronny Jordan
• Chains and Things by B.B. King
• Grinder Man Blues by Memphis Slim
• Confirmed Truth by George Freeman
• Hey Lordy Mama by Abbey Lincoln
• In the Wee Wee Hours by Junior Wells
• Blues Grinder (live) by Ronny Jordan
  I once had the pleasure of seeing Ronny Jordan live at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town. It was exhilirating as expected; he is sadly missed.

A few remakes to round off the blues grinder. Keep your head down, your time will come.

File under: culture, observation, perception, displacement, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 16, 2022

A Very Beautiful Thing!

Some day people will realize
That Tariffs for the United States of America
Are a very beautiful thing!

What's going to happen to the markets,
I can't tell you, but our country is much stronger.
Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something

Hang tough, it won't be easy,
But the end result will be historic

They are coming to the table.
They want to talk
But there's no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis.

Our past "leaders" are to blame
For allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!


A sonnet after Donald Trump

Puff, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. Self regard is everything. (spotify version)

• He's Misstra Know-It-All by Stevie Wonder
• Talking Loud and Saying Nothing by James Brown
• Legend in his own Mind by Gil Scott-Heron

File under: hatchet job, language, humour, satire, rogues, absurd, economics, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 6, 2025

The Logic of Dreams

You finish composing the email,
Making sure to cc the right people,
And click Send

Promptly enveloped, encased in a package
The soft fabric, crinkly with its sheen, surrounds you
Wrapped up, bundled into a mailbox
Bumpy, you hit the rugged sides, blue metal

Then other envelopes and packages come in
What is this? You are getting pushed down
Crushed against the sides of the mailbox
Congestion, you think, even at this hour

Yes, you seem to be stuck in the first mailbox
The first of many. When will you get out?
You know the envelope has markings on the outside
But will it be inspected? Postal inspectors for email?
It's getting dark. More mail comes in. More packages

Finally, movement, your message is on its way
Floating, the envelope moves through the mail system
The thought occurs: should have marked it as urgent, high priority
Comfortable but stuck in the envelope, this must be a dream. Damn
Next router, another mailbox. More congestion, more packages
You have to wake up, you won't make it

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups
The email address you entered couldn't be found
You can't wake up. Message undeliverable

Packets, packages, parables
Finally you laugh, the comfort of the envelope
Lucid, the logic of dreams

Logic of Dreams, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• A Dream by Donny Hathaway
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead
• Paradise Circus by Massive Attack
• Lucid Dreams by Blu
• Just Can't Understand by Paul Hardcastle & the Jazzmasters
• Weird Lullaby by Wynton Kelly

Bonus beats: I can't wake up by KRS-One


File under: dreams, life, observation, perception, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 6, 2022