A Lake's Mountain Shadow Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

A tall mountain
rises above
a lake's crystal face
under
a splayed sun.

Out of a knotted bond
deep down
the lake's widened bowl
stands the giant
mass of a peak,

flipped over to gulp
down all waters
breathed out

by a crater deepening
into a mountain's
crown, the head
that sips in all light

from cream and silver flowers
of sun growing
deeper roots to sink
beneath the mirror
of a lake's face

digging deep
with golden crab hands
of rays sharper
than love's claws.

(ii)

O paws deep
down a lake's marbled floor
of smoothed silt
lies a mat of a sky

flashing a sun over
a mountain's drowned head
drunk with a mountain's
feet sprawled

and rolled into a dough
warming up
in the furnace
of the mountain's volcano,

as it explodes
into ridges of irises
and the gorse

that opens its eyes
wider than
a leaping tarsier's.