From Room 5 Poem by NGALAH GWEDENG

For this song
That by me is sung
(in one cheap hotel’s
Room 5) after a hectic
Day with six students 5
I raise my fist
To laud the lost love
Whose wayward wandering
Heaves for me a sigh on which to weave
A verse that veers relief 10
For me in disbelief
Because I know
In this song
That by me is sung
Is veiled victory for virtuous veterans 15
I venerate in my degenerate
State that stultifies the stupidity
Of regenerated racoons in roguish
Outfits that fail to fit
In with the splendour of the candour 20
Common to comely poets whose homely
Voices vibrate and radiate
The dark dungeons where deviant dandies dwell
In sleek discomfiture
That lends more meaning 25
To this songThat by me is sung
(in one night cheap hotel’s
Room 5) as I lure sleep
In a lullaby
That presages a brighter day 30
After this weary night
I spend alone
And sing this same song
That by me is sung
(in one night cheap hotel’s 35
Room 5) at
5 O’clock
in the morning!

(Douala,08.05.13)