Aurora


by NWANOSIKE MICHAEL - Date: 2008-10-29 - Word Count: 731 Share This!

                                Aurora



  ‘Twas a humid but hot night...


When I touched outside


Four miles away to be precise_


After I saw a documentary


On TV



  Granules of yellow light sprayed off broken iron


As it slide across a jet of ethene_


The sight of it was pristine_


 ...I strolled toward this scene:


Showers of light fragments spread out


(In unison) like stage curtains


To make way


For the faint outline of a man


Wearing a pair of gloves, and a protective mask_


Holding the welders torch...


  I relished the colors on display...


That was at large during the day



  Meanwhile,


In my neighborhood


It was unheard of


A welder working at night shift


  His section of the road_


I repeatedly overlooked_


Suddenly received my unwavering attention,


My mind floated adrift,


The experience that would follow, I guess


Would mean a lot to me...


But memory failed to remind brain


The happenings thereafter



  I was cast into the Arctic Circle


By an angel of imagination


I was filled with the spirit of science


Like the biblical john


  Transfixed into the Ireland of Patmos


The latter I must have to apply, thus


To relate my ordeal


But I am a scientist


And not a Christian


To be precise



  On the same spot


I fixed my gaze to the skies


A shimmer of lights revealed itself


To my unaided eyes


Like an open scroll


To be precise


 ‘Twas a blanket of green-blue emissions


From the elements that were likely


To hold a stake


In life beneath


  All the spectrum of white light


Made their mark


In curtain folds


Arranged in symmetry


And moving with rhythm in it



 ‘Twas strange there...


I didn't feel cold...


The ice I stood upon felt wet (all of a sudden)


I withdrew my gaze from skyward


To the horizon


Catching sight of two sheriffs in a snow mobile


That made harness out of fuel


Closing up on me for being a wanderer...


I even forgot...


Imagination has no boundaries whatsoever



  ‘Twas weird, anyway


An African! Come to think of it...


Living side by side with Eskimo


  I returned to West Africa (on deportation)


The Niger delta to be precise



  The winds of agitation seemed to abate there


The kinsmen finally reap oil


For all their wish and toil_


But there was problem_


  The outside world was recovering


From the consequences of oil glut


...But the engineers


...Indiscriminately lit gas flares


In oil facilities scattered here and there...


Like Olympic torches telling humanity


That those activities to mark


The worlds undoing


Has begun...




In contrast, few still campaign


In favor of clean emissions


On a planet where global warming


 Had already taken its toll...


Dirty carbon and its allies... are members


Of the greenhouse family!


It's just that they aren't environmentally friendly;


They keep boring holes through the layer of ozone


The latter which is sunscreen


 To life on earth 


 


 


  In the light of these warnings:


Find a solution to the oil addiction...


Use it as seed...


For bio-substances which are ecologically friendly...


‘Stead of striking a match to it...


 ...seems nobody listened all the while




  On a spring equinox (12noon)


Rainy season to be precise


The conflict between light and darkness


Was the reason longer night to shorter day!


Became paradox


  The sky went pitch black...


That the air was clothed in massive soot fumes


Was the reason why many babies...


Were choking to death


  The ozone depleting substances which had spoiled the ozone...


Was the reason why cancer


Drew familiar to dark skin


‘Twas chaos everywhere


A common man need not be a scientist


To deduce that white light


Meant a whole lot to life


And black light


Has no spectrum...



  Aurora lives nowhere


Save the atmosphere


Surrounding the poles


Where... the ozone above...


Have few holes


On its blanket


  Where the elements


Lining the summit of the skies


Are so clean


As to produce... lights


That eventually transformed my life forever


  Accounts rendered by arctic dwellers ...


About the aurora borealis


Would make many want to flee


But... it did not even hurt


A black man like me_


Even in nightmare...



  I regained consciousness


From what turned out to be some collapse


To find myself in the hospital bed


Beside a welder


  "Please weld in my broken nerve fiber..."


I uttered loud ...


"'twas a slip of tongue"


I quickly added_


...everybody in the room... burst in laughter



Related Tags: global warming, fuel, spectrum, ozone layer, arctic circle, niger delta, ethene, welders torch, green-blue emissions, dirty carbon, nerve fiber


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