For My Mother in her Mid ’90s by Ama Ata Aidoo

For My Mother in her Mid ’90s

Long

complex, complicated stories:

heart-warmingly familial and sadly colonial.

You know how

utterly, wonderfully

insensitive the young can be?

Oh no. We are not here talking adults

who should know better,

but never do.

Aunt,

I thank you for

being alive today, alert, crisp.

Since we don’t know tomorrow,

see me touching wood,

clutching at timbers, hugging forests:

So I can enter young,

age, infirmities

defied.

Hear my offspring chirping:

“Mummy, touch plastic,

it lasts longer!”

O, she knows her mama well.

The queen of plastics a tropical Bedouin, she must travel light.

Check out the wood,

feel its weight, its warmth

check out the beauty of its lines, and perfumed shavings.

Back to you, My Dear Mother,

I can hear the hailing chorus

at the drop of your name.

And don’t I love to drop it

here, there, and everywhere?

Not missing out by time of day,

not only when some chance provides,

but pulled and dragged into talks

private and public.

Listen to the “is-your-mother-still-alive” greeting,

eyes popping out,

mouth agape and trembling:

That here,

in narrow spaces and

not-much-time, who was I to live?

Then she who bore me?

Me da ase.

Ye da ase.

Ama Ata Aidoo

Ama Ata Aidoo is a Ghanaian author, playwright, and academic. She was the first woman to receive a degree from the University of Ghana and went on to become a professor of English at the same institution. Aidoo has written several books, including the novel "Changes" and the play "The Dilemma of a Ghost." She is also a recipient of numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in Africa and the African Literature Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. She died on the 31st of May 2023.