A Waterscape Poem by Ogaga Ifowodo

Hung above water, hands in the air,
whited tongues and breathing fibrous hair:
roots, white mangrove roots.

Blacker than pear, deeper than soot,
massive ink-well, silent and mute:
water, black water.

Floating hats of lily, yellow plume,
plankton and shrimp, egg-and-fish in bloom:
lakes, ancestral lakes.

Rich mud of eels, water-holes of crab,
sink-place for fisher of dig-and-grab:
bog, mudskippers' bog.

And in the mangrove waters, where tides
free the creeks of weeds, fishermen glide
home to the first meal.