A Time Poem by Chima Ononogbu

It snows and snows around town,
around family dinner table where faces grin,
around the fireplace where tongues of flames, lovely and gentle,
lick up the sores of the old days and heal their wounds,
around fine trees decked with tinsels and florid ribbons,
and their foothills ringed with packages in garbs of colors,
which light up the eyes with electricity,
and blot out dark fumes that eclipse the heart,
driving out smiles from even the hardest of faces.

Libation is cast that appeases the divinity of peace.
Now the firmament gulps up peace, that fills its abode,
divides its grains among the moon, sun, and stars.
The abundant residues, it spills like showery waters,
watering the root and stem of a world with tapering hope,
yet evermore fuse its air with fragrances of juniper,
thus binding its scattered pieces with the band of grace.

What a time, so passionately enduring!
a time in the deep of divine,
in the solemnity of love and becoming kindness;
when heavenly hosts are in heavenly communion,
the earthly inhabitants uttering unearthly choruses,
so powerful, the head of the whispering wind in reverence bend,
the eyes of the cloud in frightening amazement light up,
while the lonely bells in bouts of worshipping dance swing.

Oh, a time, a healing time!
Unblemish in spirit and wrap in the soul that succors.
Although love is scarce yet abundant to bind wounded hearts.
This time, the fury of our past is the peace of our present,
and our pathways lit with sparks that shout from our future,
guiding us holistically to the place where our joy heaves in sight;
there, our eternity dwells.