Lion Of Night Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

A lion of night
is devouring a mewling
cat of flying wind
with broken wings.

A lion of night in a gyre
roars over galloping
whining horses
riding through to cloudy

edges rising into
a mountain it can
no longer climb, falling back
on me with a cream
blanket and wallowing

shadows, when man's inner
bowl has left him straying
into the stars
of a wounded night.

(ii)

Bleed, bleed, bleed
O splayed night laid
on a rusty clinking bed

melting into shards
of frozen children,
mums climbing burning ladders
into flamy night ceilings,

a rusty moon fleeing
into its waxy feathery sleeves.

A moony taupe
and brown man melting
into hands of night

bawls out "Lie down on your
shadow, and I'll sink
both shadow and you
into the sinking tunnel of an abyss".

Sink, sink O tunnel
of night melting
through an abyss thin
as a cobweb's wing.

Sink, sink O spirals
of light from wounded stars
breaking into dawn's eclipse,

a sword of lightning
splitting night into dusty
moth wings swelling
into a buzzing mouth,

a lion taking over
veils and curtains sheltering night
from the red light of blood,

all cream light rising up
in smoke from roof tops.

Fumes of night, weave
the broken fabric
of moon-lit times
clothed in feathers

from a strayed eagle
fleeing a roaring lion of night,

as a sizzling wind flaps
the wings of a flying lion
chasing a deer out of breath,

when night is fattened
with a scarlet river
rushing into a deluge's crimson
mouth at the edge of a cliff.