Bulbs

By

George O. Obikoya

Dew on a fine morning

Glisten on bulbous cups

Streaks aphids wrought

Delight our weary eyes

Turbans of hope divine

Blossom of varied hues

Solitude of godly grace

Prettify wares kilns bake

Kind hands potter on

Defy late summer heat

Zeal stirs hope sublime

Stamens not to vegetate

Birds and insects pray

Nectaries exude again

So life abundant sways

Where none now exists

Seeds of plebeian stock

Relics of times of yore

On global sojourn talk

To eager souls alike

Love hails cute blind

Tunicate bulbs belie

Beauty springs to life

Green as the blue sky

To tend still we oblige

Crypts of Venetian veil

Lost in bulbous worlds

Wet in revelled liaison

Ever in joyous craze

To Jupiter so we pray

That our bulbs live on

For edgy souls to gain

Oh what a royal shame

To let life wither away

Baking precious bulbs

Tweaking climate so

From afar they croon

Idioms of magic sing

Implore in synchrony

To let the worlds live

As to a lineage’s ode

Bulbs dance to songs

Of praise to the gods

In anthers life reside

And by organs locked

So to sire not inbreed

It fazes to see us ruin

Diversity bred to sway

Life in ideal accords

Tells in garden lore

As divine bulbs daze

Passionate eyes lured

Dazzled on idle days

Ready to play for gain

Naught changes again

Even in so much pain

Still render life to all

Relish in lavish grace

Splendour so beheld

Flowers in tired souls

In peace love breathes

Ophidian not to praise

To save gorgeous bulbs

For life to thrive again

How serene days were

In languor yet sublime

Bound so in nonbeing

Cherubic ease to boot

Bewail not the days

Fruits illicit sired sin

With spirits dismayed

Life in such disarray

Even in exit moored

Sorrowful eyes’ plea

Flesh and spirit aghast

Lament night and day

Not of days uncouth

In now perennial strife

That seeks worldly bliss

On forbidden gen tree

To tell good from evil

Bug-on-bulb confounds

Beauty breaks of grace

For tender eyes to gain

Yet, forth we must go

Till peaty soil in sweat

Speckled heather yarns

Shelter from vile winds

Childbed grinds in pain

Delight a trifle delayed

Eternal labour of love

Gives meaning to life

Just as flowers soothe

And aching souls seek

Relief in bulbous roots

So for us children too

Fill our souls with joy

Light passion we crave

Be poised in our minds

Heal in mystic dream

Yes, they hear our cries

Our echoes so far away

Tear through bracken

Glide over distant hills

Gods in tandem sing

Cheers to livid rings

Where humans slog

To pay for primal sin

It matters thus to pay

Shear away the pain

And eyes’ veil to see

Sweet bulbs displayed

Yet, cold hearts gloat

Issues of mystic plane

On vision so tunnelled

To shame godly grace

Of strife-full is game

Adrift the shame sea

Resigned now to face

Life endless in pain

So, why take the bait

And fall prey yet again

As primal sin thrives

So psychic pain sways

Fern blades sliver us

Moss plagues bulbs

Life shades elude us

Beauties tucked away

Nerve conceals virtue

Airs ruins arty grace

Our truths often fail

In our lives everyday

We cringe to look in 

The mirror yet again

As arched faces scare

Make murkier mugs

Yet, we do not relent

To face pain yet again

As we sojourn in life

Knowing truth is vain

So, should we not faze?

Or not hide in shame

On the altar of truth

Where now marooned

Not whence comes so

The wisdom to choose

Hidden from our view

With a veneer of truth

As epiphanies pile up

The mist pain dumps

Clears to reveal bulbs

Of clean visual delight 

The glint in our eyes

Robust cheeks’ shine

Our supple fleshy lips

Glittering in full view

As the mirrors smile

Caress our tired soul

Signal to us to come

See beauty in bulbs

Inner selves revealed

Trail pain away divine

Life is good yet again

Its promise all fulfilled

It’s time to celebrate

Heed the rhythm of

The bulbs’ perennial 

Cosmic trips we tweak

That we now see pure

Must leave so to gain

That our path may be

What we truly crave

Why we seek to play

Life’s game must daze

As bulbs buried deep

May expire yet again

So, why not ponder

How to stop the pain

That kills the bulbs

With heat and us all

We need mirror too

Us in a cosmic realm

Where beauty chaste

Fiestas in the skies

That the gods remain

Benevolent and help

Fix the telluric flaws

Of such transient ones

Hence we must act

And admit to our sins

Remorse sets us free

So to change our ways

We are blind no more

The visor is then gone

For us to see the bulbs

Jazz to rejoice with us

Rain begets true rain

Unburdened with dirt

Relic of the tepid tears

Some so gloomy flow

Air now is so fresh

Not beset with rot

Or cart skunk jolly

Round hapless folks

Let toil sweat gush

And not tepid tears

To save the children

Profligacy so to shun

So their angelic faces

Not turn so arched

They spurn mirrors

Scared as us to look

It’s going to be okay

Life so good again

But we must hurry

To change our ways

Life is so very short

Time, so very odd

Be it cyclic or linear

Only belies its worth 

But speaks to us loud

To do what we could

Now, we are still here

To improve our world

It matters not what is

Or how is what we do

It is enough to do it

Be free at last for real

The bulbs we see live

In our hearts for good

So, it must sure fulfill

To see our bulbs bloom

Our actions also live

Forever in hearts of all

Our fellow sojourners

On eternal cosmic trips

We must thus rejoice

To have seen the light

Our bulbs shimmering

Gaily on the cosmic train