"KOKO"

“KOKO”

Glazed sky of red stripes, glistening grass

A chicken tendering its young, a cock crows

A tripod stove made from earth in a shack

Underneath a child blows

On it a meal simmers

Bubbling blend of corn flour and water

Blub! Blub! It forms on its surface hot bubbles

Which erupt and exhume the vapour

Of a cornmeal and the savor it couples

Forming fierce waves toppling one another;

Like so as one beholds

The heightening heat builds a furor

Inside the trembling pot

As vicious magma the meal lifts the lid and spills over

And forms around the pot’s ear

A delicious delicacy

Savored most at cockcrow;

“koko”.