Riverside by River

Poem by J. D. Koikoibo

aerial view of Oil Rivers by www.imagekind.com

Chocolate water, home-thirsty travellers,
groaning engines, bouncing boats,
sprinting breeze, billowing shirts
pained buttocks, straightening backs
checking gunboats, pointed guns
throttled speed, surrendering hands;
higher, higher, even higher:

“Where to?” Where else but home?

Waving forests, ripening farms,
big, miming waves, dancing canoes,
curling creeks cuddled by loving creektowns,
orange lights cast on black skies,
like the sun stayed up late
to welcome sons from faraway lands.

But sunset so many and so late?
Ask the moonlight and discover imposter gas fires

You’re astronauts on water,
floating closer, closer to kin
on the moon that is riverside
with diesel-powered starlight struggling for a place

in the dark ahead,

and Barrister Smooth in a muffled tone

tells you, you’re home at last.

Greeting folks, open-arms, welcome home.