Convoluted Smile Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Spirals of wind
flying from soft bumps
rising from a tray
of dimples

and fibers of sea skin
pasted on a face.

Broad-armed waves
dance and fly off
from flabby waxy
cheeks in curls
and swimming ripples.

Eyes grow
silver flowers flipping
off sparks

and full splashes
of light pomading
skin to blaze

in that wave-hit ship
swaying back
with a full cabin
of sunny passengers
clothed in clouds.

(ii)

Waxy cheeks, plastic
face sprayed
with soft helices
over pulled strings

stretching out face
into a puffy balloon
with little air.

But when it's
too full to hold
the hot air

of swollen cheeks
breaking up
into the tweeting birds
of split giggle,

a smile curls worms
on a rolling face
to breed the flowery
grin seamed
by sun and stars.

(iii)

Face spins crystals
flying out from teeth,
a brightened sky
blazing, blazing
in ridges of wrinkles

mulched to sprout
with the creeping buds
of beaming
moonstones, bulbs

flashing on and off
over the torn skin
of a smile that cruises

to the cliff's edge
of a cheekbone
breaking out,

when the surgeon
of temperament
pulls out a scalpel

to withhold flesh
for a crawling wry face
cutting off
a choked fleer, the face
a comet's trail.