Black Elephant Of Night Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

O black elephant
of night,
let me ride you,

as you climb
a steep slope
of darkness,
a jade, dark night,

no hole of light
pulling and leading
me through
a dark tunnel

as you stroke
and rub me
with your soft trunk

rolled over
to massage me
through bumpy hollows.

(ii)

O ballooned beast
of crawling moments,
an onyx canopy
flipped out
like a black umbrella,

covering me
with black crow tails,
as the crows caw out
more raspy songs
rolled along

by a trail of night
carrying bull
and buffalo horns
confronting
my dark elephant,

as I pass through
a night of wing-swinging
fears, as winds blow.

And soft croaking breezes
crawl, jumping
onto my loud-grumbling
elephant rising
into a full flowing boat
of bloat and swell.

(iii)

Rising with me
on a beastly back
through sable

dark clouds, floating blinds
carrying dim stripes
with no hippocampus.

Cold chowderhead
of stretching darkness,
you're just a beastly screen
hot woodenhead
of a thick massive,

hanging ebony curtain
and crumpled
soot creased drapery
of teal-lined darkness,

drift aside
for the hilly beast of night
to glide by,

tromboning low and loud
and trumpeting,
so coals can dance
to the earless fat animal

of drifting night
ambling throughout
night hatching night.

Night spreads tentacles
of night with clusters
of blind alleys
leading to the high-saddled
beast of darkness

grinding and spraying
flamy coals of darkness
through blooming
black-lipped pansies,

as night mulches
and flowers trailing night.