A Daisy River Beach Poem by Felix Bongjoh

A Daisy River Beach
(i)

Air's path
of birds
twitters
and whirs through
a creek

by a murmuring
whistling river,

its waters
purring too
and swishing
with
shifting winds

widening
flat waves and
shifting ripples,

as breezes
float
and winds flow.

What hoots
through
forest walls
of hunter green

and fern trees

spraying
wide-armed
branches,

as a honking
goose joins
an ibis blowing
into its loud

trumpet, chaining
its drag with

an out-of-tune
rattling
violin, as other ibises
whirr and fly in

to pluck
their own strings
for a chorus.

(ii)

Under a cotton
and alabaster
drifting sky,

I walk on
sand
and filtered
gravel,

swelling their taupe
backs, as I stride
faster

on silt-cushioned
sandy earth
lifting my soles,

as puffs
from far-flung creeks
are hurled

over and over
to stroke
and brush me.

(iii)

Butterscotch,
ruby and
medallion flowers
soften the tone

of a tawny
and rough russet
earth floor

adorned
with orioles,
weavers
and lanky sandpipers.

But the sky
falls down
with its stretching

daisy and powder
hue spreading
with air's silver,

breezes flying
a cream sheet
to spread

into the cream-
silver umbrella
of a hollow sky

hanging from
the firmament,

another ibis
sliding a spike
on a cello,

as it screams amid
a daisy powder
rising towards sun
with a sword

of lightening
to break sun's glassy
gold crown
into stratus cloud
shards,

as I sneeze out
a ropy pearl smoke
to tie up
loose daisy strands.