This is a tribute to Colin Essamuah, a columnist with state-owned Daily Graphic who passed last month.

He died after a short illness.

The tribute is written by poet, Roland O. Akosah

Time, unseen but in its element, onward marches

And, not unlike a man-made train, set in motion,

Chugging along in a clangor of chiming coaches,

Time sets many a sojourner in self-same motion.

Without free will, yet upon a sojourn embarking,

Without free will, yet meeting a serendipitous end,

While along chugging, many a milestone marking,

Wile and wit changing not a sojourner’s solemn end,

Off a mystery coach, a bumpy track, a ride all too short,

Earth its claim laying, a sojourner to earth is returned.

Alas, even prized rubies of rhyme enjoy but a ride all too short.

For, where springs forth life, there the dead is returned.

A loss to the living must be to the deceased an eternal gain

Doesn’t biology first stand us erect, and offspring we sire?

Why then the jaded joints, a spindly spine, and a gangly gait?

Youth yields its pleasures to platitudes of twilight; so we die