Embers of Coal

(For Yaoundé ‘92)

Some things refuse to go the way of all things

Like you reaching out to say hello all these years

Arriving each time like expected rain

Watering the dry riverbed of memories

With sharp refreshing arrows of rain

Under your gaze I am not afraid to be me

Pushing the frontiers of my being and nestling

in the warmth of your virtual breath.

Steeped in the mutual longings of two decades

We squashed distances at a button’s touch.

What does it matter where you are and

What dreams my nights now carry?

Who measures the taste of honey

on longing tongues? or firmness of

a nipple in a child’s waiting mouth?

In the mirror’s reflection I see my eyes

A harvest of questions blinking, dous

-ing fires raging in narrow valleys,

Yet the embers of coal remain hot,

Waiting and wanting your whiff of wind