Stars in My Future

Lit candles glowing in night skies
Are stars
Announcing heavenly banquets
And prodding me to brave up every storm
That endangers the voyage of my life
By lighting up my soul
With songs and smiles
Floodlights that dispel gloom here
While looking forward to ascending up there
The ultimate prize on graduation here
Attending celestial gala nights
Accompanying the Father.

(2002)

poem by Chris Jibero
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Buried in Poetry

Dodging deadly ditches
Dressed as luxurious divans
By the dashing dubious
To entice and entrap
My fortunate feet
I ditch the fastidious flesh
The bane of man
Dragging one backward
Like a century old fox
Full of wiles but senile and hobbly
And make poetry my own grave
Comfortable and copious
With pen and paper
Burying myself alive deep inside
Desiring no farewell nor funeral
And crave no resurrection
In this cacophonous earth

poem by Chris Jibero
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Man Heal Yourself

Man, oh man
earth’s steward
heal yourself
of your protracted insanity
spruced with profanity
in your daily battles
to attain some vain height
which you set
and desire inordinately
to satisfy just yourself and only yours
by hunting your kind viciously
preying them mendaciously
unlike other mortals
your ready-made quarries
which you serve dutifully
to your insatiable master
a hideous ogre
that turns at will
to take, tear and guzzle you merrily
with no appreciation to show

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poem by Chris Jibero
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Merry Christmas To All Husbands

During a certain Christmas service
Or Mass as some are wont to say
The officiating priest asked widows
To step forward for a special prayer
Of blessing and favour, intoning
That God remains their undying husband

A certain woman sitting beside her
Husband on one of the front pews
Jumped to her feet hurriedly
To the bewilderment of the poor man
Who promptly pulled her hand
And reminded her of what the priest said

But the enraged woman, looking askance,
Swiftly brushed her husband's hand aside
As though loaded with filth, and retorted,
'Are you alive when you can't provide
The needs of your family, even at a season like this? '
Stunned and speechless, the man's jaw dropped as though

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poem by Chris Jibero
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My Burden

My loss is my burden alone to bear
In sacrosanct equanimity
But sympathy does come calling
In drips and drabs to attenuate my pain
Great talk shows seen
Some lend me their eyes to weep and wail
But vanish fast like a ghost seen at noon
Cos none knows as I do the depth of the pain
That I bear

The pain of sympathizers is on their flesh
As water poured on rock
Mine embedded in my bone
And feeds on my marrow
Family won't invite us,
My pain and I together,
To a breakfast meeting
My peers won't
Invite us to a business lunch
Friends won't invite us to a dinner

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poem by Chris Jibero
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Gin And Lime

Like an evergreen ballad
Wafts your melodious voice
In my receptive ears
Depositing an indelible
Mark in my roomy heart
That can accommodate
Only you, my merry-making
Gin
That has branded me
Her hand-in-gloves
Lime

Your enchanting voice
Is a well-blended bubbling
Red wine fit only for a manly
Heart as mine and so sharp
Like a dagger eager to peel
Any forlorn - looking pants
Off the wretched waist
Of even the most virulent

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poem by Chris Jibero
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Serena

Strong
Elegant
Robust
Energetic
Natur al
Agile

Your cherubic face that frequently
Explodes with iron-melting smiles
Is like dry season moon
In its full bloom
That tames every darkness
On her enchanting path
An open invitation
To African men
Of valour to attend
Gainful moonlight games
Without chilling fairy tales

Mother Africa epitomized

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poem by Chris Jibero
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Vent

Idea,
Insight,
Perception,
Inspiration,
Motivation,
Or just some madness?
I know not which
But it's intense
Alive and dense
And like a benign deluge
Comes it to irrigate an arid
Heart harrowed for dry season
Planting and inundates the field
Of my waiting heart
Shutting off every other desire
Even thirst and hunger
As the urge to write is ignited
Like an addict's desperate desire
For a shot to remain stable
As knowledge gathers for planting

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poem by Chris Jibero
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