SILENT PASSION
O. WONODI
The springs
well out waterdrops;
drops from the sky
measure the hours
of your undue discretion, hours
lost between contending thoughts.
And I that brought amulets
stimulated for a dance of nerves
stay your many moods
and the silence of passions
unspent, slips through
rubbing and caressing
far-flung desires back to life
like bubbles on watersurface
ending at vacant shores.
My passions
stay in the lay suburbs
of your thoughts
and you stay my lips
and fingers because I do not
curse; because I do not
pine, pant and swear dreams undreamt
or like schoolboys howl
love songs and saltless tears into
the salt waters of Port Harcourt harbour.
O Lady love!
Age, sober age, has washed
the valleys dry;
only the hard rock of desire
is left of youthful ebullience.
(for Sue)
Editor’s note: First published in Nigeria Magazine, Sunday, March 1, 1970. Source: Archiving.