Love Reciprocated Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(flowers for my daughter, Agnes Josiane Bongjoh)


Love Reciprocated
(flowers for my daughter, Agnes Josiane Bongjoh)


(i)

Take this bunch
of ambrosia,
as I toss
back strokes

and brushes of yours
that sink
sink deep into
the skies of my inner

gorge, a house
adorned
with your grin
and roofed
by your winks

steering ripples
of love down
a garden path

stitched
and seamed
by clutched palms.

(ii)

Hold tight
to my cinquefoil
by a candle

burning
stars and suns
into my sheets
sheathed

by your stroking
hands
and scratching
toes, the strokes
I miss most,

as dawn and dusk
touch down
on us, and we let time
roll by on its
slippery wheels.


O clutching
daughter in a tide
brewed
by palms missing
each other,

storm-drifted
to our spiraling wind
of love,

as we glide
past orchids
and white
chrysanthemums

sitting in a basket
held down
between you and me
by a breeze.

(iii)

I stroll on gorse
woven into
crawling wool yarns
of rhododendron

to bring light
and sun
binding our hug,

when I walk
without you,
my soles unclothed,
on pinching
chapping cobblestones.

Let a breeze
of you cleanse
and glaze
my soles to stand

in a sea shore's
nook
with you,
as we spiral on rails
in the train
of our honking love.

(iv)

Take this torch
of celandine to shine
your way across
the bridge
to our home,

a bank growing
chrysanthemums
beaming under
a gold silver sun of eternity.

Let these balloons
and light
flying balls
above and around you
explode into ribbons

of birds and butterflies
and stars
in syzygy
amid confetti

and chanting children
carrying crevices
between arms stretched
out and deep caves
in their chests
for a full engulfing hug.