VERSE TWELVE

Dust started to settle
On leaves and rooftops
Long absence of rain
Prepared the platform
Feet and vehicle tyres
Trampled dusty roads
Leading to highways

The year at its end
Like grey hairs
Huts stood out
As golden domes
Depicting the aged
Preceded by dryness
Waiting to be fêted

Drums beat
Dancers out
Tone crammed with songs
Some noises prominent
Pistons pounding mortars
Competing for choice meals
Festivity filled the air

Chicken and goats sacrificed
To appease the stomach gods
Foo-foo, rice and yam lined up
Procession of escorted limbs
See them dancing to the toilets
Like the living to their graves
A recycled carnival complete

Jubilation and depression
Bedfellows to the dying year
The unborn wait in expectation
Bathed in the tide of the womb
Bells tolled, ushering a new verse
The last canto depicts the twelfth month
When the new meets the old on the hour

About This Poem

Review Request Direction: What did you think of my title?
How was my language use?
What did you think of the rhythm or pattern or pacing?
How does this theme appeal to you?
How was the beginning/ending of the poem?
Is the internal logic consistent?

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Country/Region: NGA

Favorite Poets: Inspired by an article in an old manuscript , It reads:, AXIOMS OF PERFECTION, In the physical order – In the realization of the dream of beauty, In the moral order – In the realization of the dream of love, In the intellectual order – In the realization of dream of poetry, In the spiritual order – In the realization of the dream of the mystics

Comments

t. reflexion

14 years 1 month ago

Dearest...

Do not mind my funny mind, I joke a lot, even with serious matters. This piece came from the experience I had in the church when I was little. We were reading Bible in my native language, tough it was, I panicked, like others. We would count from the one reading so we could rehearse our verses before it came to our turn. sometime one or two ahead would bungle up, this would change the one you tried to master. when it came to my turn, it was verse twelve, in panic, I stood up with my Efik Bible and said 'Twelve verse', instead, see the laughter from my class mates including the teacher. I looked stupefied. thank you.

tr.

t. reflexion

14 years 1 month ago

You got it...

I mean the meaning, this is only what gave the idea to the piece, the background story only reflects on the title, not in the body. Just a way of keeping the memory fresh. I needed to share my funny past with you my faithful friend, cheers.