Remorse And Pain Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

A sword
of lime
lightning
slashes
my jade skies

into shards,
while
a storm roars.

Struck
by the coarse ropes
and clawy,
rusty chains

of a typhoon,
and flung

over a cliff
by a roaring
tornado,

I'm dipped
in the marsh
and sludge
of culverts

digging
boreholes
to trap
and sink

lurking
chameleons
and
scorpions
clothed in the slim

gossamer
fabric
of spiders
and dim
sister
arachnids.

I've also
been
rolled over
thorns
and prickles

from swelling
hollows

and deep
burning holes
and ditches

and gorges
of wounds

I've failed
to seal and heal,

as I wriggle
through
this bumpy

tilted world
of pain
and slimy grime.

(ii)

I reel under
piles
of my sloth,

claws
and thorns
pricking me,

as I pick
flowers
to shelter me
under oil
and midnight

skies, when
cloudy onyx
ceilings weigh
down on me.

(iii)

O cascades
of rose
and scarlet
amaranth
bowing flowers

waving
brick petals
of my filth
at me,

let me lean
on my storm
to pull
in a breeze.

(v)

Your stormy
downpour
of starry thorn-
edged petals

and jumping
brushing
scratches

deepen a trench
into a coarse
eroded floor
I must level up

with shredded red
petals
of my blood
dripping

into my inner
bowl
of ruby clots,

the only
butterflies
to stroke
palms
and cheeks,

as I sit
under your
shade

quivering
in the chills
of a sticky
cold icy grime,

a volcano
widening
its mouth
to devour me.

(vi)

Guide me
with a dahlia
torch
to the cave
of the gods

ringing bell flowers
as they hug me,

and a brugmansia
trumpet blasts
the skies
to heal me.