Three Poems by Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

Paradise

A gliding gull on a glassy sea
Paints a wondrous image
In my mind's eye:
A reflection of the white-blue sky
And the proximate trees,
And the bird glides through
A natural kaleidoscope.



Sunset

The day's chapters had been played out
In far and wide corners
Of the world.
Roosters hurry homewards
To arrange their vocal cords
For the introduction of a new book;
The sun after running to the edge of town
Returns to the celestial eiderdown,
Casting an orangey-yellowish-pink light
As he draws the curtains behind
The last word in the denouement.



Riverside Syncopation

Splash of waves,
And the high notes travel
To die by the shores.
The bellowing sea is silent,
And basks peacefully under the sun;
There is a musical silence,
A silence that makes us discover
That some sounds can be called "silent":
The whistling of nearby trees,
And the soft rustling of dry leaves
Racing confusedly under the spell of the wind.

Marvel Chukwudi Pephel is a prolific poet whose works have appeared or are forthcoming in Jellyfish Whispers, Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine, High Coupe, Kalahari Review, PIN Quarterly Journal, Praxis Magazine for Arts and Literature, Poetry Tree on the Charles, among others.