Welcome Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Unfold your sleeves
into the flat
fabric of banana
and wild palm leaves
spreading wings

into flatter foliage,
palm fronds
and stretchier
elephant grass fingers.

unfolded albatross
span spreads
and sprays
broader arms
to wrap you in blankets
of breezy shores.

And egret-winged
nylon cotton cloth
with stretched
albatross feathers,

all float flags
and wing-flapping
ribbons
swelling with my breeze.

From stormy eyes
in an icy blizzard,
icicles drop and roll off,

thawed into a grin
to fly with a dive,
a painted lady
stroking a maple-leafed
luna moth.

(ii)

Welcome, all strings
of soldier ants
tie nibbling knots

to drop into
streams of pain
that burns
and grills and broils

only to ease off,
steered and veered

by rolling sweaty
streams
into a river, its canoe
abandoned
on a river bank.

Let leafy wings
of dragged winds
drive the canoe
to its harbor,

a breezy breath
from a star-toothed
mouth,
a flamy glowing smile.