Friends And Enemies Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Pull down the screen,
Draw in the swinging curtains
With the hue of a gorge
And starred eyes of night sky.

In the flipped-over colors
Of life's spectrum
Burning at one cliff with flames
From the yellow lips
Of scores of chrysanthemums

To the swinging black
Blanket of a Barlow columbine,

Only dark-eyed faux anemone
Sail, a thousand viola eyes
Trailing them, cruising
In snail steps after them.

Grab both butterflies and wasps
In their flickering colors
Building rainbows of life
With indigo and brown
Waving the flags of other colors.

(ii)

Butterflies of bright
Cotton air pull in
Only stroking palms

From wings flapped
Like the soft touch
Of a baby's brushing hands.

Landing on your chest
To leave powder
In a sunlit bower.

Clucking, they clutch
All parts of your
Cloak, the outfit you wear
Drawing the buzz
Of a bee from a trumpet

Flower's buzzing mouth,
Passing on to you
The burning core of a hum
Which friends share

From deep bowls of nectar
They sip together
And taste out together.

(iii)

When a tang of hemlock
Strikes the mouth,
But doesn't continue
Down dry throats,

Friends fall back on each other,
Brush and rub spines
For the deep breath
Of the Gordian knot, the rose
That pulls them together.

Like the bright day
That runs through dusk's gate
To a dark clear night,

Its rays still hanging on
With a crimson flash,
They pull in only as shared light.

(iv)

Wasps in the dark
Sail in during your sleep
Wrapping you up
In a numbing gripping cloak
Of a deep sting

Chewing and swallowing
Your skin, so that a hot prick

Sinks, when the wasp
Has bounced off
To a lake drowning the sun
On the horizon
To flash out sapphire
Beams on a floated leaf.

Drunk with the pulling
Colors of wasps
On floating leaves, you dive
To grab them - only to be
Pulled and hugged
In to the lake's dark bottom,

A lurking crocodile
Making a soft meal of you,
As you flee
With a deep gore,

Leaving behind to float
Red butterflies
Of dry clotted blood
To hug you and clutch you,

A rising sun flashing out
White and cream butterflies.