Cliff of Sirens

By Felix Bongjoh

Cliff of Sirens is a set of poems about the plight of a people who, entitled and wishing to enjoy basic freedoms and rights in their own country, are assailed by a counterpart country of equal status. The belligerent has for long monopolized power, refusing to recognize the other party as a country of equal status, depriving it of fundamental rights including the cultural right to express itself in its own language in addition to legal and other rights. The situation is compounded by the fact that the victimized country has been subjected by its counterpart to a status whereby they have never enjoyed a genuine democracy, one man from the belligerent country having usurped power for almost forty years. The people of the assailed country, Southern Cameroon, who have been treated as second-class citizens so far and denied basic economic opportunities, see themselves as having been pushed through a tunnel to a cliff now collapsing dangerously, people of all ages ranging from babies and toddlers to adults being slaughtered with impunity on the basis of a totally unjustifiable genocidal war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781490794594

Felix Bongjoh

Felix Bongjoh, currently living in Boston, Massachusetts, is an International Human Capital Development Consultant, who previously worked for an international organization for some 30 years. In addition to the present twenty-fifth book, Saddle On Thunder, Bongjoh has previously published 24 books of poetry, as follows: (i) Chorus on a Bridge; (ii) Broken Gloss of Bliss; (iii) Nightfall at Dawn; (iv) When Dusk Hoots; (v) Weeds of Jewelry; (vi) Season of Flowers; (vii) The Ineluctable Spin; (viii) Gloom’s Sprout of Love; (ix) Spectrum of Zephyrs; (x) Whistles in the Wind; (xi) The Sun Still Glitters; (xii) Cliff of Sirens; (xiii) Quiet Shadows Scream; (xiv) Angle of Angels; (xv) Sculpted Out of Sky; (xvi) Feathers of Fur; (xvii) Through Sundry Waves; (xviii) Beyond Dying Ripples; (xix) Doors to Eris; (xx) Outskirts of Inner Bowl; (xxi) Ebbing Out, Bouncing Back; (xxii) Tailored To The Stars; (xxiii) A Storm Wave’s Reach; and (xxiv) Isles Of Light.

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Copyright 2019 Felix Bongjoh.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9458-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9459-4 (e)

Literary Fiction

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Trafford rev. 04/03/2019

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This book is dedicated to Agnes Josiane Bongjoh, my beloved departed daughter

Contents

Prologue

Storm with shears and swords

Ghastly beasts of fear

Cliff

Garish Curb

Ash and Dust by A River

No more glue

Red flags in red air

Cream River

Rivers of bread and bubbles

A sacrifice of toddlers

Half-naked burial

Short-lived Slumber

Proper Posture

A fallen hero alive

Flesh under palm tree branches

A bike abandoned to blood

Possessed by a Beastly Instinct

The hidden load

Orphaned Girl and Ghost

Disjointed

Time milled into dust

A Temple Buried in Ashes

Disappeared in white clouds

The solemn count

Foul Play

Clouds and storms

How many times?

Crippled

A meal of death

The wardrobe

A stage in the woods

Strange ashes

Like an oracle said

Choruses of death

The meticulous soldier

Lost bungalow

The final act

Double loss

Burning houses

Flame of a sore

Fumes from an undug grave

Vulnerable

The hollow soldiers

Dozens of other soldiers

From a river to a wild sea

Twigs on a black blanket

A bundled mass

Bleeding stretcher

Mild song of an Omen

Golden grains of rice

Tomorrow never shows up

Uninflammable filaments

The true soldier

In the chasm of a lost home

The new living room

Epilogue

The tunnel

At the Cliff

Prologue

Storm with shears and swords

(i)

At far south of ocean, a larger ocean

Expanding away from quaking

Banks. A mountain rises, followed

By a taller mountain of sea water

And yet another splitting in two

Like sharp blades of giant shears

Running into earlier mountains

To swell them higher and higher.

And as the three mountains

Of sea water rise again, they stand

Like elephants, their trunks

Hurling blades of serrated waves

Sawing off cylinders of timber

Rolling on towards dazed banks

Before long the mountains retreat

Miles and miles away towards

High seas leaving some fisted storms

To punch themselves out

Along the banks. Along coastal

Streets where customers in cafes

Fight with their own storms over cups

Of coffee, whose special brew

Has been served scalding-hot

Boiling your lips and palate as

You sip it cautiously, making sure

Your cup is not slipped off by gusts

Of wind which have tramped

Into the hall, where customers over

Their coffee, read about more

Bad weather, maybe a blue whale

About to walk on land, throwing

Its bulk across streets from sidewalk

To sidewalk, or along narrow lanes

Where hooting vehicles have come

To a standstill to allow a giant-sized

Gale slip by and whistle through.

More gales come singing with raucous

Voices, thunder giving them a chorus

As intimidating as incoming sea waves.

(ii)

Far into the hinterland waves

Of windstorms thicken popping voices,

Gun shots from heavily-armed

Gorillas sending away people

From the streets, from houses

Targeted for a stormy purpose, the ranting

Soldiers brewing storms, wrapping

Up groups with intimidating nets,

Trying to fish out people with bad blood.

For a while, the sun flees away, more

Dark clouds gathering, more

Smoky fog chasing away flocks of crows.

Chasing away people from a bar

Where one man is confirmed to have

Have passed out following a close-range

Gunshot received in the chest.

O storms breeding storms in heavy

Clouds, where voices sound like ghosts’

And sharp feelings of fear cut

Through like shears, more swords

Brandished in words falling off like

Bullets from soldiers’ mouths

Soon becoming sharp-shooting muzzles:

The air is full thick-lipped muzzle

Mouths, winds abating, the soldiers

Still ambling and sauntering around.

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Ghastly beasts of fear

(i)

Crocodiles creeping through

Frightened crowds

In tatters of themselves,

Exotic Komodo dragons

Lunging at fleeing young men

Seeking shelter

In vipers’ entrails, the vipers

Themselves still licking

Off their red lips

On overcrowded streets

Young men

Carrying vultures

On their bleeding heads,

Blood in the lips

Of deathstalkers and box jellyfish

Red ink on vipers’ lips

Writing a story

On a young man’s forehead

A sixteen-year-old

Exhibiting his elegant tie

Of a puff adder

Basking in warm breeze

Round his neck

And soldiers necks

Growing into cobras’

About to strike

With mere honey-lipped words

And sword-hurling gazes

Growing sharper

(II)

Storms of fear abate,

Soft winds

Taking over, people

Suffering from mere light

Having ferreted out

Holes in secret layers

Of their minds

Sheltering them

Like distant hidden caves.

(iii)

When they come to

After hiding

On consoling lion backs,