Night Cracks Nut Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Strike the gong
of night's hardening
hide, a night's
mouth stretched out

on a deep
volcano to explode
with a hidden nut.

Hammer in night's
nutty gabbro
to make a dent
on its stony seal,

the hue of a thick
smooth shell
shaking out a bone's
tone wearing
leather to stick to
a melting onyx skin.

Spray out a cloudy
obsidian metal
on night's stretching
anvil to flatten out

an iron that won't
stick to night's rolling
onyx and soot flesh

bleeding with rust
and redwood scars,

as carmine and maroon
cuts split, spurts
of barn red drizzling
across a shadow sky

still folding up its core
into a nut of jade

and pitch night
in a storm's mouth
sealed not to roar again,

as a paced spray
of pearl and cotton
light chew off
and swallow a cloud

building an onyx
tower now collapsing
into low cottages

of alabaster
growing into a glassy
steel night crinkling
and popping to unveil

a core, a nut
in hard rolling shell
in a bleached pitch.

(ii)

Crack the night
in its shell
to pour out beads
and swinging necklaces

on a night that pops
and rattles
into a swelling black
boa swallowing
all chunks of onyx

and specks of soot,
a fire of tight-lipped
night already

flaming with pops
and crackles
from bawling stormy mouths
yawning out pieces
of a nut
sticking to its shell.

Crack the nut,
hammer it, axe it
so it splits

into a steel and stone
bridge to a well-lit
tunnel, crowds choking

with a nut
of night unfolding
into ropes and chains
of ants,

dudes crawling out
into dawn's moonlit
powder daylight
sprayed with the fire

of a pink and flamingo
sky crowned with stars
floating in squiggles,

light reading out
their script as "You're free",
a rumbled bang

opening a door out of
a tight onyx night

into freedom's splashed
light woven out
of fibers of dawn,
the nut a night splitting out
into balls and chards of sun.