From Fire To Empty Plate Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

The lime fern
and hunter green
flowering field
of crawling willows

flaps its wings
across a knoll
and rolling meadow.

From a bright
flame of tanagers
and warblers,
orioles spray

their own gold
and yellow
fire, as a red flame
of cardinal

pops up through
the ashy air
and lands on
a tall arrow
of fire ginger,

as it drifts off
bunched
of another fire.

Red flames
of cactus aloe
rise in the green
field of red

roses crawling
like glowing coals.

(ii)

But the cardinal
rises again
from another
hearth of flowers

still glowing
amid yellow flames
of sunflowers

and red
and yellow
flames
of amaryllis
and tulips.

Cardinal, I saw
you rise
rise from warbling
flames of fire,

ashes on
your wings, as
you shrugged

off flamy petals
and headed
for a lawn
by my veranda.

But the trough
is now empty

after a stretchy
wait, a stealthy
magpie fleeing,

having sneaked by
to devour your
lunch of seeds
and maple buds.