Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Gods of the night

 Gods of the night

Minutes thin towards the 0.00 hour

And sleep overwhelms,

flames are blown off wicks, the town snuggles for slumber.

A giant cloak of night descends to guard till dawn

Saints and robbers roost together.

Someone catches a fatal fever, another receives

seed of a future king and plots are hatched

to kill the present.

 

It turns eleven and I be.

I spread my papers, sharpen the pencil

Strong Africafe is company,

the swirl of mosquito too -

my working symphony.

 

A town hall sentinel discloses:

the mayor shall die

I blot where I will be.

I count to the seventh bat and compose a poem.

A bed creaks and moans in usefulness. And I

Bet my pencil it will be an abortion.

 

The vibration, the conspiracy, the general abandon

Reach my nerves. The smell of fried dinner

fades, breeze approaches.

Bats flatter, a stray dog trots past.

 

An unfortunate victim yells in the street below:

with only a little force money journeys

from a pocket to the next.

I conclude my poem, as a whim, with a rhyming couplet.

The dispatcher, as an afterthought, stabs his reluctant victim;

Hauls the soul into the next life.

 

Like the average divorcee, I cross out a stanza,

Glad that I can create a mess and fix it

like God, write a life and erase it.

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