On beauty we must pay a tax,
no matter how much we’re earning.
If God gave the swallow nothing else,
he gave it swiftness in turning.

A boyfriend is a solemn thing.
His brain is bad; his clothes, mismatched.
In Ghana, Death is a skeleton, too,
but the ears are still attached.

Its ears are still attached, but that
does not mean you will hear it.
If you are an eat-by-myself type of girl,
you will not see a spirit.

Prizes are reserved for the defeated.
Punishments go to the winners.
Leopard skins are rare, and so
are never worked by beginners.

The plumber has come with equipment
to undo the emotional clog.
The lizard does not eat pepper
and sweat break out on the frog.

If a rat gets a hold of a fufu,
he will eat it; he does not steal the pestle.
The souls of all tormentors are soft
like the lead of an artist’s pencil.

A boyfriend yields a lesson like
“The Death of Ivan Ilych.”
A snake is like a rope, and yet
you don’t use it to tie up a package.

The ukulele is a hollow fruit.
So, shake it and savor the sound.
Trees are a net: they stop bird bones
from ever reaching the ground.

Who stands wide awake in a darkened room
is apt to give people the shivers.
When a bird has a long enough bill, it has
no need of crossing rivers.

You don’t sit there making rope in front
of the animal you’re trying to catch.
And no one teaches an Egyptian cat
to look in a calabash.

Mother to child, and girl to boy,
the influence is corrupting.
When a hunter comes home with mushrooms, he’s
not asked for news of his hunting.

No child looks idly in the pot;
she expects to be given something.
If the fool knows nothing else, he knows
all about his plantain dumpling.

The Tathāgata never reflects.
The Tathāgata never thirsts.
By the time the fool has learned the game,
the players have dispersed.

The girl is fifteen, and sight unseen,
I gave her all I had.
All plants are medicinal but you do not know
and say this one is bad.

The ice cubes fight to get to the top.
They’re pushing and shoving, aggrieved.
She who does what is not usually done
perceives what is not usually perceived.

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