Restless Soul Poem by James Bako

I beg my soul
not to go back into
the crystal vegetation;
my mind breaks loose
every time I cage it,
chain it in my consciousness:
it dissolves, then disappears.
Each time I pluck it from the firmament,
to the same spot it returns –
beside the still water;
there I sat with you,
the birds cooing songs so mellifluous,
there, Jack and Bingo stare
as if to say, we’re witnesses.
But we our world have built,
like there’s no one else in the universe;
the water has the record,
it painted our love bluish:
there, the image of you and I
closing as one –
one breath, one mind,
one thought, one creation – love.
We went to heavens,
wishing never to return;
the winter breeze froze our bodies –
now we’re one spirit, one soul, no body!
Bingo’s bark sliced that divinity,
and we’re back by the water side
beside the meadowsweet
in the meadow of Obudu ranch,
walking hand in hand, our spirits melting into one.
We comb the golf course naked,
wishing we have no homes
to return to,
that we’re wanderers
not longing for the laboured world –
noise, contention, …, toiling filled.
But why?
why have you let me out
out of the world:
the one we both created?
I wish I will ever see you again,
to behold your sweet shy face
that blossoms in the day
and, like the diamond,
glitters at night.
How I long for it –
that tender touch of yours,
the sun’s gold
in the deep blue sea;
your charming eyes –
that captivating god –
freezing my soul’s gaze.
How could I forget
those succulent lips, the velvetglove,
that fetch life into my dying statue,
dissolves my desire
and make my want sublime.
But now, all the is a dream;
I told my soul to forget the image,
often it acts
in the hypnosis of your potion:
it keeps searching for you
in the abyss and in bliss,
and when it doesn’t find you
it returns to the baptismal sanctuary,
where shackles of lone and desire die,
just to see you again.
Until then, my soul is restless,
and now a perpetual wanderer.