Ship Of Night Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

On the black vinyl
of a sea stretch
stands tall
a mountain of night.

On a dark tower
puffing out
dark gray clouds
time is a crawling porpoise
in the snare of a shore,

wings of a crow night
flapping and flapping,
until the sable arms of an eagle
snatch black leather,

shedding oil feathers,
a jade smoking lounge

whiffing out
beige patches of stratus.

A moon-scythe slashes
night's skin to bleed,

drops of pink blood
spurted
and sprayed down

night's bruised chest
half-dressed
with the stained bandage
of a fading nimbus.

(ii)

Thump through
O ship of night.
Carry a deck of stars

to light up the flanks
of a galloping horse,

time neighing
with a bleeding night
sticking out
a taupe mare.

A harbor's glowing
hearth
flowered with beacons
to a shore

woody and bushy
with white beards
on a shore's edge,

sailors aged with waiting.
Dark bells still ring,
as lightning splits sea stretch

into a limping elephant
in a wrecked sea of a storm wave

and a shore's dawn
glowing
in the heated furnace
of unfolding daylight.