Fire Of An Applause Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

It had been a crackling
Sunday afternoon
thumping with claps
and loud cheers

of congregating groups
within closely knit
worlds spinning around their orbits
in the neighborhood.

Monthly meetings
found the focal point
of their ellipses

in the apartment next door,
where they orbited
on an of axis of rain-on-roof claps.

(ii)

Bawling, barking
and shrieking voices
swung back and forth
with hollering,

quacking laughs trailing
shrieking, growling
chats, as volleys of yells

flew across beaming
faces lit up by chirped
cymbals of loud applauses.

And palms tapped palms
like rain on roof top.

(iii)

And when rain drops
cackled on trees
and warbled with wind
through leafy branches,

their voices were quickly
thinned out by other
rounds of applauses

swallowed by the sistrum
and vibrated bamboos
of louder claps, as chirps

took over and growls
turned the small meeting space
into a thick jungle.

(iv)

Through the window,
the sky dimmed
with winds howling loudly
for a rattle on roofs.

The meeting attendees
bawled and shrieked
out that it was just
another explosion

of a loud applause, but this time
the rain of clapping palms
grew into a crackling, cackling fire
playing the maracas,

as a voice from the yard
next to the parking
area shouted: "There's
a fire right next to the cars".

And the meeting's
thumping engine of applauses
was immediately cut off.