In a world where love has forgotten its place, lost all meaning, left floundering in the mud—courage has found its nirvanic horizon, its ruby flames rise up in the end~ Poetess
Destroyed, slain,
smashed and driven to the ground~
a brutal odyssey of dispiritedness
of rude awakenings endured
around this, fire kept burning within
intoxicating every vein in my body
when welled up eyes, pools of tears fallen
I was the ocean, the lone firebird that flies over
a lone star ablaze, weightless, free-spirited
and alas, rising from the ashes
in glorious splendor for all to observe and marvel
born outside rose walls, from wind, at night,
from red clay, the flowers and the mud,
weeds and roots they know my name
its not attention I seek, its resonance
smashed and driven to the ground~
ignored, displaced, and all but forgotten
and from this despair, I am the phoenix rising
f r o m t h e a s h e s are the gauze wings,
refined in sapphire gossamer velveteen
walls turn to rubble, no rose-stone left unturned,
left unseen is what most is valued, light sifts thru
I’ve won life’s prize—contentment's invaluable gifts
“Buzz buzz”, the anopheles shrilled the night
As with hunger on grasses, they slumbered without light
Babies, held against skeleton milkless breasts
And gnashing teeth, the men in dispiritedness beat their chests.
The greybearded simply await their knell to toll
And in agony, the brisk and spry watch their fall
As they, starving, grow thinner and thinner
Fully aware they would grace the coyote’s dinner.
Kwakwa, my village smokes no longer
Deserted of people and animals even to the border
For the peasant farmers of this poor village
Now repose at the mercy of Biya’s heinous rage
Pa Bossom’s charred body graced the stake
For being asleep while others, awake
Beholding red, took to their reliable heels
As bullets battered the meek and echoed over the hills
From Bamenda to Buea I now repose
For my life has no purpose
As biya’s gun dictate when I flex
Myself, I keep asking ‘when would I be next?’
I wish for memories to be doomed of all pains
To forget our flaws and falls till this breath lasts
Dispiritedness over failures drains us of worthy attains
But to bounce back with gutsy force that in time outlasts
Taking pride over our modest joys amidst rattling winter blasts
English Quintain -rhyming scheme a b a b b
July 9, 2016
Kim Merryman
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