Horse Of A Repenter Storm Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Lost in the Calvary
of a storm,
I wriggle my way
out with a twill Calvary weave,

these cubicles
sheltering only you,
nemesis,
and me the dot of dust

in the growing mountain
of my broken bust
sculpted out of a flying cloud.

Genuflect I do
amid misty shadows
and melting fog
over a hearth of me

from an arched
rainbow thrown off course

by a slithering lance
of lightning
grown into a thin lemon whip.

(ii)

The horse rider of me
I spin and pin
down to a stop

falls from sooty clouds
wearing a gray evening's coat
on a light inner wear.

O horse, you're galloping
on me - not with me,

but an overgrown man beaten
into a dragon
playing with a phoenix's flames,

After tunnels
of muslin clouds are dug
into a brown sky

baked by fire from the tips
of my poking swords,
I stand planted by you.

Let me swirl
into a black bee
gripped
by a sizzling beetle's claws,

the hidden cloud
spat out by the crater
of an old grudge

flying up with the wings
of an unkempt hawk.

(iii)

When my horse's neck
grows taller
than a giraffe's, and trees
flee from my grip,

only an embroidery of stars
hang over me.

Only a hearth's sparks
In fireworks of love
fly back at me,

as I flip open my parachute
in a cloud's elephant chamber.

And the trunk
of a gale tosses me
back to land
on flexed scissors,

O knees without joints,
you're now
the horse I ride
in a thick haze

O goddess of a river,
let me flow cleansed
by your waters
to the edges of your jagged mountain.