I still see you contouring beautifully
Gracefully down the valley
To the watery creeks of fishermen
Propagating life and commerce
Along your clustered path.
Comrade of my infant days!
How I loved to plunge into your cool
embrace
And dared the sun to strike his strokes
Or at eve scoop you up
To wash off dust of a defeated day.
My container would carry some
To mother’s earthenware pot
The household’s refrigerating life
store
Or early next morn stop to pause
And watch my face dissolve
On your watery and moving canvas
Expanding my dreams beyond the
boundaries
Of a starry-eyed school boy.
I have crossed those boundaries
No longer at ease with this city
Hawking some maltreated stuff in
sachets and bottles
As the bowels protest with each drink.
Day and night you call me
When finally I come back
O embattled Daughter of Niger delta
Shall I again see your sacred purity
Shall I?
Pipelines daily burst in your restive fronts
Acid rains down on your bosom
Unleashed by the vanity heart of greed
Shall I again see your sacred purity
Shall I?
Copyright: Dumbiri Frank Eboh
Title – Orogodo river is one of the tributaries of the river Niger which passes through Agbor, a settlement near the author’s home town in Delta State, Nigeria.
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