By Kwesi BISSUE
February
Always a flash in the pan
Just when we wonder when it had began
It had already ended
While January had gone all the way
After January had dragged through the days
And then had delayed February’s entry
February
Always a flash in the perennial plan
February
The second of a dozen moonfuls
Always embittered
Ready to take a bow in a second
An early shower
Embattled and abandoned for March
Shoved off to match the Ides of March
Or to make up for the lost days…by March
February
Always ready to disappear before the second moonful
February
Always a slice of harmattan
The chills and the ills
They fill cold moments at will
The haze and the blaze from the bush fires
They daze, they devastate
The withering
The withered grass and leaves
The drought that leaves the parches
The drought that prevent raindrops
The occasional raindrops that are not enough
February
Always another slide into the harmattan
February
Always entangled by a valentine
A valentine just a fortnight into its moonlight
A valentine to appear in the darkness of its night
On the night of the fourteenth day of its midlife
A valentine just to entangle in the arms of the dark night
A valentine just to dip a heart in the red
In crimson flowers
February
Always entangled in a valentine
In hugs and kisses
Even in its short moonlife
February
Not always prepared for a leap year
When it must travel beyond twenty eight
Even when it has twenty nine ahead
When it traverses twenty nine only in the fourth
February
It adds a year more to your years
Only in the fourth
It leaps from twenty eight to twenty nine
Only in a quarter
February
Sometimes not prepared to leap
February
Always forgotten after a short spell
As if it had no story to tell
No perfect story to sell
As if it had no idea about great men
About these February men
Men of heights, extraordinary
Galileo Galilei
Robert Nesta Marley
Abraham Lincoln
Michael Jordan
Steve Jobs
As if it has no story to tell
No good news to yell
About this February man
Man of a height, ordinary
Yours truly
Sammy
Kwesi Bissue
February
Never may you be forgotten in a hurry.
