Twelve o'clock at the Onne' Port dock
With Rita tied fast along side
A Zapata mud boat
I set my feet on dead ground
Heat shimmers through dense air
Sending ripples through reality
Small boys, no more than six
Or eight years old
Hawk marijuana wrapped in notebook paper
By the dockside
Sweat stings my eyes
On my trek to the bush bar
Through a sweaty blur I see
Military policemen standing against
Filthy concrete embankments
Indifferent to pedestrian traffic
They smoke British cigarettes
And pretend that I am invisible
Moving through muddy streets
Of the steaming village
The smell affronts the senses
In the same way that poverty
Affronts the soul
When I reach the bush bar
Two expatriates sit beneath the canopy
A Brit and an American
I join them to drink tepid beer
And to listen to their stories of
Real and imagined experiences
Of wild and drunken revelries
Of murder and martial law
Of mass executions on the docks
Of how they watched, powerless
As the decks of their boats ran red-
As we talk and drink our beer
Rough skinned lizards dance
And run back and forth across the corpse
Of a small, fury mammal
Its body now a playground
Its life all ready forgotten energy

It is the rainy season in Nigeria
By one o'clock the clouds will grow and darken
By two o'clock the rain will fall-
But it will not cleanse the ground
Of Onne' Port


   
 

M. W. Anderson writes poetry & short fiction, and paints (conventionally & digitally) in his spare time. His poetry has been published by Thunder Rain's L'Intrigue WebZine, Vistula Online Poetry Journal, Oddities Compiled, Bloody Muse, and The Harrow. He is the recipient of the 1999 Thunder Rain Writer's Award, for his poem "At Howard's House". His short story "Coon Hunt" is currently online at Bloody Muse. In the coming year he will have poetry and/or fiction published in The Dream People, Parchments Symbols, Tears On Black Roses, Little Brown Poetry, Dynamic Patterns, and Electric Wine. Some of his digital artwork can be found at http://www.odditiescompiled.com

Have comments you'd like to send the author? Please e-mail Mike at: mikea@precisionhusky.com or fill out the form below: