The Tics of Times

By Abdulai Barba Kallon

The work is a reflection of my life and the lives and activities of the people that I have inseparably lived with through the times. It is a reflection of flash joys that are always soon replaced by lingering stories of despair, which one reads from faces and attitudes.
It is also a reflection on the kind of toll, different ways of marshaling the affairs of the people have taken on their land as well.

Finally, the collection provides subtle suggestions for a recourse of behavior in order to set the stage for a better social order.

Each of the poems in the collection is dated to indicate the time it was written. This makes them flow in history, as each speaks of the peculiar nature of their time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664126053

Abdulai Barba Kallon

Abdulai Barba Kallon is a former high school teacher with 30 years of teaching experience in Sierra Leones’ rural districts of Kono, his hometown, Kenema and Bo. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1988. Mr. Kallon worked with the Finnish Refugee Council from 2006 to 2011, where he helped the agency to develop and deliver adult literacy materials for the empowerment of illiterate community adults. He has also served as a resource person for the Ministry of Education in Sierra Leone on different occasions, providing education materials and training to users.

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Copyright © 2020 by Abdulai Barba Kallon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/31/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Death For Sale 070189

Freedom 220990

A Dramatic Reversal 140320

Hope 131290

The Heart Is Ageless And Colourless 011091

Not Entirely Age 290292

Grim Lull 010193

The Passages 200493

Out Of The Belly Of Files 200295

Greed And Corruption 020295

The Queues 060695

Another Sun Rises 301095

A Rebel Attack 060896

Which Season 110591

Outrageous Beauty 250591

A Perfect Form 121291

Not On The Fringe 270292

Sleep 050792

Black On White 150593

A Tropical Storm 180593

Keep Us Company 200894

The Little Foe Dies 170796

Abused And Misused Children Of Africa 160599

If You Have Eyes 051299

Say The Truth 040503

Beyond Parting Passions 200503

Smile 200603

I Wrote These Lines 141093

Thick Night Dawn 100504

African Children 090604

The Plea 061004

The Inside World 020212

Stages 171212

Gateway To Heaven 030913

The Grass Is Trampled 181113

Take It Easy 100214

The Road 060314

Are You In This? 060314

Dusk From Dawn 050514

Ebola 011014

Covid 19 310320

The Paradoxymoron 170215

Falling From The Peak 311215

A Fatal Fault In The Red Concrete 240315

Let’s Speak Out And Space Out For All 020815

Times And Outcomes 090815

Gravity 200915

The Formless Voiceless 191015

The Discriminate Bully 291015

The Choice To Come Live And Go 101115

Looking Beyond 070116

Fences 100216

Eco Savagery 090316

The Chase Of Life 190416

Seeking The Goals 111016

Lines Of Life 311016

Warming To The World 111116

What With The Surplus And The Deprived 171116

Mad Tongues 191116

Job Experience Requirement 071216

Who Was Anything Before He Was? 091216

Do You Doubt This? 181216

Restrictions 020117

The Lonely Passage 31O117

Harmony Of Diversity 240217

Facing The Challenge 210317

The Great House 210517

Controversy 160819

Apologies And Compensations 040919

Wrong To Differ From Ills 200919

Beyond Audition And Vision 241219

Charade 261219

My Destiny Beyond Me And My Life In Stronger Hands 0302020

Life In Retirement 110420

The Woman 110420

Ode To Words 11O420

What Is Permanent 160420

Covid 19 Confusion 190420

Not For The Love Of The Close 280420

Compassion For Peace And Child Survival 140817

The Mountain Sleeps Forever 210817

Warning To Flee Mental Captivity 221117

Surprise 031217

Inaction Not An Option 151217

Goodbye To A Hopeless Era 311217

Justice 291216

Mix Up And Cut Across 110318

The Mute And Hidden Beauty 120318

The Natural Roll 130318

A Nation Mortgaged To The Devil 190318

Lines Of True Life 280318

Complexities Of Selfhood 040418

The New Era 040418

Security Checks 110418

Setback 180718

Our Lament Of Your Departure 090818

Celebrations Of The New Year 070918

The Journey Of Life 050918

You Are Alone 220419

From Dust And Puddle 280619

Space Unknown 050819

The Clock Ticks 150819

DEATH FOR SALE 070189

Lurking in a packet for sale is death

For puffers to bluff and cough their way to hell

They set their cash ablaze to burn their health

Pay the secret knell man to chime their elegy bell

A social pattern to puff and cough some stain

And blot vital organs with every lungful

Handing legacies of more charred lungs remains

In frail yet moving forms to the yawing black pull

By design and nurture of the lethal attraction

Issues are dragged to share unfair yet sure portion

Those who fear to look death in the face

Are caught by puffing breadths no matter their race

Name it a fun you follow to end your calendar

But note it might avalanche a race of murder

FREEDOM 220990

Freedom is just a false notion

In all those who do cling to it

Taking no bearing from creation

In which checks and restrictions sit

Eve God created to depend on Adam

Whose rib He designed to become her

This God did to instill in man

The binding force of His power

Eve tried to assert her freedom

And oh she ran into the devil

Playing from a sly direction

By an open jail gate to claim man’s soul

The creator had said to man

"You are master of my creation

Only foul mind may cause you harm

When it entertains a false notion"

God offers His own prison to keep man in His fold

For man He designed to make him accountable

This in the bid to avoid His tough hold

A grip which forever torments the terrible

Always pinch yourself to not forget

The devil the lines mentioned earlier

Who fights daily for your soul to vet

So the faithful of God he could lure

Everyone to some parent is born

And if only by instinct we know

That blood attachment is stern

For those groins from which lives grow

The world is a moral chamber

That is filled with rules of nature

Binding every single commuter

To guidelines of safe passage structures

The rules do talk to every brain

Who find themselves involved

In acts of acquiring gains

That make up their great love

Yet some men hardly in worry

Are so unshakably resolved

In some shrouded evil masonry

In which their