Padmore Enyonam Agbemabiese Poems

all my life I've searched
for where the ripples on the river go
when they disappear beneath the bridge
...

between us
lies a desert where prayers of David
can force a rose to spring from the sand
...

come to me gently like petals
falling in a gentle breeze

heal my dreams like balms
...

what happened
to the dream of the dawn?

is it deferred
...

Grandma used to say:
where the pools are bright
that’s where they are deep
and where the hawthorn blooms
...

I’m still here after the rain
tending the tomatoes
pushing black pepper seedlings
back into the ground with these fingers
...

after long walks on village lanes
after being in moonlit nights many market days
he showed her how to make a love-knot
...

from my window on Ashen Avenue
netted with a frost-bound spider-web
I can see a sparrow in a hurricane
searching for a way....with a head full of dreams
...

my love like a rose
unfolds gently beneath
your loving touch
becoming a gem in your arms
...

(Numbers 12: 1-15: 41)

O God, the land You have promised
already has someone living on it. Why
...