Yellow glints sway in motion
amidst the lake’s breathing pace,
steady and faint.
A shallow tinkling dip,
another dip,
dip, dip, dip, dip,
till you feel the waters’ trickling chant, crisp
and neat,
summoning rumored bodily spirits
clothed in dazzling embroidered water crystals.
Trickling chants echo the mellow incantations of living ancestors,
rising from the lake's depth into the
yellow light,
sending shivers and shrills into the quivering night.
They begin by striking the waters’ surface with invisible feet
that splash liters above their head
and fall down in shapes of fire droplets,
reflecting the yellow light.
They twirl and whirl ’round the moonlake's surface,
conjuring the waves and lashing sharp words into their being;
incantations that send shivers and shrills into the quivering night.
With such vigor, they
dance to the chants and dips;
the waters are their fellow stage comrades.
And you, from the shore where you stand,
catch the sight of
the frailest and firmest dancing ancestor who
looks like you.
O, if I Were the Waters.
if I were the sea, if I were the mighty mad waves of the ocean
dancing to the fury of wicked wind;
if I were that wicked wind,
dark clouds,
shrieking thundering,
nay, the unbridled waters of heaven's eyes,
I would find calm.
Pleasant Nneoma Stephen is a poet, student, and writing coach. She is an ardent lover of doodles, rainfall, and African mythology. Pleasant is a Gold Award recipient of the Senior Category of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition 2023. Her works are published or forthcoming in Literary Forest Magazine, Decolonial Passage, and Vagabond City Lit.
