Moon's Cream Butterflies Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Moon, drop
off your cream moths
and butterflies
of light on my walls.

As dawn closes
in with a pewter
and flint sky, wings
of your sailing bird,

stamp a monarch
butterfly to float
in ivory wings across
the way room.

You spit out
daisy swallowtails
and cream
pipevine butterflies

to light my room's
walls with
crawling flowers
and opaline sprays
of butterflies

to fondle me with
pieces of your
stroking hands,

a breeze, melting
you into
a thousand moths

rolling, rolling
up and down
my half-lit, moon-
swallowed walls.

(ii)

Moon swinging
tails down
my window slits,

you breathe out
zebra longwing
butterflies
to crawl on my face,

as my wings
grow shorter
and shorter
in the drifting room,

and I roll over
and plunge
into a deepening
gorge of sleep,

when the hour
is wrapped
and pulled in with
fists of moon

to punch
my cream walls
into shredded
cotton and daisy

palms devouring
more moonlight
in a storm
of bleaching fingers

spraying my room
with more
moonlight swirling
into the ceiling.

(iii)

Jump down
on me
with gemstones,

as you thresh out
rings of oval
moonstones

I'll fit into
the creeping fingers
of dawn
and morning light

swallowing
your
graphite and cream,
as you leave

cream butterflies
to stroke
and brush me
to sink

into the shallow
waters of your
creeping, wobbling light.