Uche Ogbuji VERSE-VIRTUAL 2016 May

May 2016

I was born in Calabar, Nigeria and lived, among other places, in Egypt and England before settling near Boulder, Colorado with my wife and four children. I'm a computer engineer by trade, but poetry is my passion. My chapbook, Ndewo, Colorado is a Colorado Book Award Winner. In my spare time I snowboard, coach and play soccer, and train in American Kenpo. I am also an editor at Kin Poetry Journal. A selection of my poems was included in the Best New African Poets 2015 anthology.

Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge -- Claude Monet

Califlower

I owe my eye for bursts of purple hue
In painted scenes to love's inductive force;
My native eye is green, remarking blue
And gold, neglecting purple save, of course,
The lines on tapioca leaf, melon stalk,
The streak on rain-wake blossom, all unreal
Against background green as spokes that walk
Slow counterpoint against the swift-spun wheel.
Your bright sheen on my fabric drew the flush
Of Tyre-and-Sidon yield for priest and king;
My heritage was grafted to Monet;
As if the celebrated every day
In sweet palm wine pressed bounding mesh to wring
From novelties of grapes your fluid hush.

First published in The Victorian Violet