Immortal Images Poem by Abubakar Ahmed Imam

Each time I close my eyes
Images of the days gone by
Like a flood come surging
I see you emerge from the kitchen
Your eyes twinkling with tears
That dazzle like saphires
On the neck of a fiery princess

Beads of sweat caress
Your ochre-colored face
As you roam
The whole compound
With the swiftness of a hart
Ever busy, never tired

Each time I close my eyes
In the coldest nights
Of our childhood you sit
Smug by the fireside
As we swarm around you
Like bees around honey
Savoring the warmth of your body
Rapt by the hypnotizing stories
Flowing and echoing
With your sonorous voice
As the moon illumined your face
And the tongues of fire flickered in your eyes

Then I sleep, yet in my sleep I see
Even when my eyes are closed