Genie Poem by Kojo Owusu

Skeptical depth
Of a haunting genie
Rippling your charms
And granting me
Three wishes
Of seeing you again
And joining our hearts
And breaking the iron bars
Of bitterness and separation
Of experiencing your
Benign presence again –

My first wish – I said
To the cunning genie
With malignant appearance
Is that he would take me to
The serene depth
Of the ocean
Where I hope to see
My queen decked with
Rare ornaments and gold
Her vault adorned with emeralds
Where I hope to stroll her narrow aisle
Glittering like the sun

Then he told me to close my eyes
I closed it and opened it only
To realized that
I was standing on a desolate shore.

My second wish – I said
Again to the cunning genie
With malignant appearance
Is that he would take me
To the deep forest
Of thickets, groves and under groves
The world of green
Where I hope to see
My queen turned to a deity
With an air of rare divinity
The trees and the animals exalting her
The overgrown lane
Let me walk fearlessly
To the deity of the forest.

Then he told me to close my eyes
I closed it and opened it only
To realized that
I was standing under a tree
With withered boughs.
My third wish – I said
Again to the cunning genie
With malignant appearance
Is that he would take me high
Up the sky where
I hope to see my queen
Riding on clouds
Her voice turned to thunder
Majestic – commanding
Wielding a scepter
Her eyes turned to stars
Her sigh the morning dew
And together we can fly in the sky

Then he made me to close my eyes
I closed it and open it only
To realized that
I was gazing an empty sky.