Uche Ogbuji VERSE-VIRTUAL 2016 December

December 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. Among other editing projects I co-host the Poetry Voice podcast. A selection of my poems was included in the Best New African Poets 2015 anthology, and I was a finalist for Nigeria's 2016 Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize.

Playing Grace

Give me of toast and for threnody,
And a kiss for the morning at half-past three.

As the brillig teapot sings our chat,
Give me a laugh at your silly hat.

Give me when the larks cut up their vespers,
The casserole play of wandering jesters.

I'll pilfer the lunch of the midnight crew
For the buoyant nonsense of loving you.

Rocky Weather Song

You never do know for the advent of snow
Is the message almighty from Colorado.
A morning ago it was sunny, oh honey!
And mealy with brightness, but now the flake show.

Let's rest up to run through the subsequent sun,
Here where the great river treks are begun,
Against tall winds rushing easterly, flusteredly,
Where sun and the snows and the winds windle one.

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