Water Poem by Chris Jibero

a multilingual itinerant trader
who all understands
as she falls, flows, roars, rumbles
and cascades
bringing joy in her comforting
visits but hides not her
feeling when hurt for
like a contemptuous wife
she unleashes fury
and withdraws her conjugal duties
and makes the universe
cold, desolate and drab
and when inconsolable
she weeps her eyes sore
shedding barrels of cold tears

Handy she comes at
my birth when in sheer
stubbornness I refused to beat
my little ogene voice like
an energetic town-crier to
herald my waited arrival
as Owaeji summons her to
dissolve my stone-resolve
to keep my peace and she
cajoles me to air the
breaking news
that makes mothers
gyrate their enticing hips
as though reminding renegade
husbands of some unfinished
duties

Much of life erecting herself
abiding abodes in the bowels
of man and earth and making
herself highways
in the high heavens
by which she cruises
to visit her customers to distribute
her goods

A traveller's best friend
an insignia of love and peace
that lures all to court her
seeing how parched earth
licks her up in morbid relish
like a gigolo
with eyes fixed on fat reward

Powerful and mighty
you drape your duvet
over raging fires
a speculator that has amassed
much of man and earth
the great tourist that comes
to assuage thirst, prepare meals,
heal ailments, wash dirt,
calm frayed nerves and
water fields and livestock.

(c) Chris Jibero.2007.