dispossessed

James Ngwu Eze

• Publisher: Daraja Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781988832487
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Poesía africana

transgression

when the earth locks lips with the moon and the sun blushes in envy, our bodies tremble
with the guilt of knowing

i found love

a valentine poem inspired by ed sheeran’s song, ‘perfect’

i found love when i found you
two tender buds blooming into petals
in each other’s arms
we survived the rains with the sun in our hearts
and we laughed when life wagged a finger in our face
because we knew that in the end, love would win this race

darling, together we shall win this war
and turn back the clock when aging knocks on the door
when wrinkles play mischief with your makeup

i see tomorrow smiling in your eyes
and its golden rays can eclipse the sun
that’s how i knew i was made for you

baby, let’s make our home a nest of straws
to leave plenty of room for life’s many flaws
for things break easily when we hold them too strong

darling, i will be that voice that the ages could not ignore
bearing aloft the banner of our love

when your feet miss their heartbeat mid-dance
i’ll be there to keep you strong
when fate puts a blindfold across your eyes
and you trip and tumble on life’s treacherous paths
don’t be afraid, baby, ‘cause you will not fall
i’ll be on hand to make you stand tall

our love shall light up our corner of the skies
its flare will anoint the horizons with fireflies
bearing hopeful stories to a bruised world

tonight i’m your verse in the music of life
roll me like a dice on the tip of your tongue
for tonight, baby, your body is my love song

i’m coming home this valentine

i’m coming home this valentine
to our sun-swept island, where palm trees lean towards each other
in silent welcome to ash wednesday
i’m coming home to hear the robins serenade your smile
with songs plucked from the lips of time
i am the victorious sword
returning to its scabbard after several seasons of conquest
for, darling, this love shall not accept defeat
let the lilacs embrace the lilies today
for our star has risen in the eastern skies
and all doubts about our love are gone
we are two shadows cast against the wall of time
who can separate our silhouette?
my love, trace a heart shape on my back
with fingers that see in the dark tonight
make every moment count
for seasons come and seasons go
but in you my heart has found a home

rainbow

like a rainbow after the rain
you appeared on the stormy horizons of my life
with a paintbrush to inflame my days with colour
and now, like a movie series
every dawn comes with a lyric
to announce a new season of love

you are the rainbow that resets the skies after each storm
erasing memories of songless days
when beauty hid behind pregnant clouds
and my earth is out of rhythm with the milky way

now your smile has set the sky ablaze with celestial melodies
and each hymnal concerto
each movement in the contralto
each fragment of mezzo-soprano
reminds me of the harmony in a rainbow

eclipse

you walked through the door to my heart
when bougainvilleas laughed the sun awake
dropping dewy petals on the floor to form a red carpet for your dainty feet

and our love has been a lunar eclipse
our bodies aligning in perfect symmetry
to the prosody of songs that have no need for voices

i am the moon in this symmetry of dreams
and you are the earth whose shadow must gather and fold me in her arms
like radiant petals, aflame in the palms of a goddess

beloved, this love is celestial. . .
and your penumbra softness is my only chance to breath

for when the earth locks lips with the moon
and the sun blushes in envy
our bodies tremble with the guilt of knowing

so let those flirty moments between the earth and the moon
inflate the bellows in the smithy of our hearts
and fan indigo flames that will make the rainbow blink in wonder

a memory of love & loss

let the winds fling these words against the skies
let them fall down to earth scattered and ungatherable
at the foot of mourning flowers

what use are words when they failed to bring you back into my starving arms
what voice have dumb alphabets when they failed to sing you back, my love
you are the bell that summon my heart without a sound
you are a hit song; you built a house in my head

and now I’m consumed with miming your name in wordless wonder to the moon

in your presence I’m a sunflower
i blush at the gift of a smile, for with you moments are fragments of broken jewellery stowed away in memory

today, ruminant and filled with longing
i spread those stowed moments like scented lingerie in the summer sun, flailing like precious tendrils of love!

so tonight let the winds bear these verses like a burnt offering to the clouds, that when you sleep they may hum with liquid legs on your roof in perfect lullaby

let them fall in silvery showers
like teardrops on bruised petals
in memory of love and loss!

tears on the pillow

let the red sun sink into the waiting arms of the night
let the dusk roll out its loincloth of grief
for the lamps are drained of oil
and the blue skies are gone

they drifted away with the fading smell of your cologne
leaving traces of dirt on my heart
and where the songbird once sang the darkness away
the owls have assembled a choir of sorrow

it is love that we mourn here, darling
but we also mourn moments shared on the wings of adversity
when the world lost its memory

i wander on a sandless beach at dusk
hunting for smells in the crab holes of regret
wondering where the tide has taken you or the smell of your cologne

and at dawn
i awake to a pool of tears on my pillow
and i am breathless with a sense of loss

this is what it means to love you

i wake with the clock to the rush of blood in regions
that once lay supine to the tender strokes of sleep
this is what it means to love you
when your ethereal smile spreads like precious rays
illuminating the pathway to the choice i must make to live
this is what it means to love you
when sunbirds no longer know the tremor of the seasons—
when the oceans kiss the shore with a boat-load of flowers—
when the winds howl without voice to announce the rage of a flirting storm
and i no longer feel the lulling touch of sleep
or the soothing chill of the pre-dawn wind
that is what it means to love you
beloved,
let me stand in the arc of your rainbow
and feel the pulse of the grieving time
let me sheath my flaming passion
in the metaphor of your flitting winks
for that, too, is what it means to love you

when i miss you

when i miss you
i feel the knifepoints of a thousand blades rip through my heart
the stars blink back unshed tears in wonder and
the clouds recover from brooding without rain

when i miss you
the church bell chimes with the voice of thunder
and i picture joshua, wresting the moon to a standstill
over the valley of aijalon

when i miss you
i’m listless like a leaf set free by a tussled stem
drifting to answer the plea of an angry wind

and now that the drums have lost their tongues mid-throb
now that the lark has lost her voice mid-song
and the tender drizzles of summer have turned to a tropical storm

who shall gather the frown from the face of a crying sky?
who shall gather the robes of stripping flowers in the autumn haze

for when i miss you
i know not the fragrance of the seasons
nor the clammy touch of the harmattan in january

now that the season is upon us

this season shall see no sun, my love
until you return to me like a weary eagle to its nest
you flew away with the secrets of the season to hug the sunrise at its roost
sowing loneliness in the air that i breathe
but when the light beam strikes the window pane at an angle
your smile is reflected in a thousand splendid rays
beloved, what became of the songs we made in the midday haze?
where did those breathless verses go?
only to return at night with the voice of dying leaves
mournful as they drop off the stalks

now that the flight of the sparrow has announced the birth of the season of love
and the udala trees shed their leaves to supplicate the first rain
shall our love find the voice to colour the se...