Poetry Corner with Kwesi BISSUE: Paying the Price for Lying Scales

SCALE I

At the gate of the farm

Where they buy to sell

There is a way to weigh out to scale

A lying scale

 

The price at the farm’s gate

They scale to a lie

The corn they weigh at the farm’s gate

They weigh at a paper’s weight

The cocoa they scale under the shed

They weigh at a feather’s weight

But they sell at a golden weight

Outside the farm’s gate

 

SCALE II

To the market they proceed to sell their loot

To sell from a shallow measuring tin

So full but for a horribly hollow of a hole

So full yet so nearly empty

To sell only a part of the whole

 

To sell from a tin projected inward

To sell whole grains to make whole gains

To sell from a scale tuned to lie

To sell to reap from what they sow not

 

SCALE III

Water runs the length and breadth

Water runs through pipes to the ends

For the breath of life to have more life

Water arrives through winding pipes

 

Water arrives

To run through a running meter

But at the end of the length and breadth

Water is diverted

…directed away from a measuring meter

Water runs in and out

…on no account

 

SCALE IV

Let there be light

And there was light

There was light from the Power House

In a single or a triple Horse Power

And the power connected together

…slums and mansions and castles

 

There was light from the Power House

In a single or a triple measure

And the power connected through a measuring meter

In a single phase or a triple phase

But the power terminated at an illegal joint

In a simple move to steal from the Power House

 

SCALE V

At the pumps

There is a pumping price

If you keep your eyes on the rise

A pumping price

Only if you keep your eyes on the rise

 

There is a fuelling price

If you lower your gaze at the gauge

A fuelling price

If you gaze away from the gauge

 

There is a fuelled price

If you drive in before an Avery test

A fuelled price

So that if you buy more you get less

 

There is a filling price

If you drive into a Gao Gao filling point

A filling price

If Gao Gao pumps more foam than fuel

 

SCALE VI

At the tolling gate

Galloping automobiles waited at the gate

All took their turn to toll at the booth

Yet many days after their back was turned

Some took the toll away from the booth

 

Some turned the booth into a looting bay

And the booty from the booth never saw the light of day

Either up on the footbridge

Or down on the motorway

 

This is the truth from the booths

So how to foot the bill

To build a new roadway

Remained only a dream

A dream muted

…and booted out by greed

 

EPILOGUE

Lying scales

Faking sales

Dishonest gains

Illegal means

Unfair winnings

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