Elegy To The Dancing Poet (For Ify Omalicha Agwu) Poem by Victor Okechukwu Anyaegbuna

Let me sleep, now that dreams are born
To create awesome visions at dawn;
Let me see haloed belle at dusk,
That exposed my tottering mask;
Now that angled hopes flashed me high
To comb the sparkle in that eye;
Her dance pampered me to the beat,
Stopping short at my nervous feet.

Now that my trembling mortal frame
Rattled to stunning humble fame
From rendition not often seen
In life's contest, so cool and keen.
Let vibrant dreams that stir my heart
Wreck this silence that cows my might
To seize charm that called at my feet,
That my reticence minced like meat.

That my adoring heart warmed up
To cool embrace fated to flop;
But raised hopes, that would never be,
To sugar my pedantic tea;
In cluttered fantasies of life
That past struggles straggled in strife
When a deft star, from the sky drooped,
But too soon halted, and tendered.

Now that the best moons are stillborn,
How would granny hear, rise and mourn?
The joy she gave that hatched your name,
Conferred identity, to tame
The monster your sanctified shine
Subdued, that gave you wings so fine;
Stagecraft, elocution; such skill
That providence so chose to kill.

Now that these potent dreams are dead,
Where will this angel find her bed?
Now that such hurtful sorrows burn
Where will dance and choreo store pain?
That glamour may see far beyond
Delightful welcomes, lost and found,
When very great pleasures that quit,
Crush the pain in my battered heart.

Your genes, talents will rise and glow
In that infant that watched you go.
Your grand dreams will be born again
In stardom veiled in drops of rain;
That will rouse you, as renditions,
On same stage you stirred great motions.
The world will stand and see it done
Then, the dreams will be truly born.

March 23,2012
Amuwo-Odofin GRA, Lagos, Nigeria