This Coronanight
Shall surely pass & we shall stand
And look back at its strand
Marvelled at the pains caused by its might
Then, we shall gather
The residues of our broken selves
Mend them together
And be strengthened into a better future
Then, with one tears
We shall write this night down on one page
Speak of it on one stage
And raise a new dawn devoid of panic & fears…
But, till then,
We are at a War front—
Crying & chanting
& screaming & slaying & wailing with hope;
That this night
Begotten from the city of Wuhan
Shall not long live—
That a new sun shall rise and bring us a new day
Oswald Okaitei © 2020
Oswald Okaitei is a multi-award winning young Ghanaian poet, spoken word artiste and a playwright. He is currently a World Poetry Director in Ghana and has eight poetry collections to his credit. As one of the finest and promising fresh breaths to poetry spoken word, he has shared performing platforms with poetry /spoken word legends as Prof.AtukweiOkai, Prof. Kofi Anyidoho, MutaBaruka, Rocky Dawuni, among others. He is noted to be transforming classical poems into stage drama having stringed different-themed poems of Prof. Lade Wosornu, Prof. Kofi Awoonor, Prof. Kofi Anyidoho and Dr.MawuliAdjei to the admiration of several audiences. Oswald represented Ghana at the 2016 Storymoja Festival in Kenya and Babishai Poetry Festival in Uganada. In 2016, he was adjudged the Pan-African Poet/Spoken word artiste in Ghana.
This poem comes at the time when the whole world has come together as one people in a common fight—against one common foe, the Coronavirus (COVID-19).