Step Back Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Step back
before sharp voices
shatters sky
into crystals
and creeping shards,

when midnight
strikes you at mid-day.

Step back
before a flash
of lightening
drops
with a lime knife
to slash you

into pieces
and ashes
after a flame has
burnt the sky
into an ochre bun

you eat only
to die
in a hearth of you,

when fire
wipes out
bones
into a quivering

sky of ashes
and smoke
yet to be ignited
with a ton
of fueled flames.

(ii)

Race not,
as a clock's hand
spins
the lime
red-tongued

ray of a lance
to sweep you,

a bleeding cut
splashing
goldenrod blood,
a burnt
afternoon grows

into pitch
night, when wild
forests grow

and crawl
through
air in ashes
and curls of smoke

turning
into trembling wires
and scribbles
across sky.

Melting, melting
Into a dangling,
slithering jade
and teal reptile

hurling off
its stretchy body
at your stride.

(iii)

Step back
before a chef
of a viper
flips out
a beaming fork

to dish out
and serve
a red
and onyx meal

that leaves
you in the hot flame
to blow
you into smoke,

when night
falls on wood
of you
already stone
in a rock's mouth.