Mutorahuku River Poem by Gerald Brilliant Mtetwa

Black and brown pebbles glistened in the cold slithering stream
Whose delicious waters healed my childish heart
Attracting birdmeat into into my fatal snare

Within her perilous liquid womb we swam
Going deep into her fertile untouched depths
Where timorious fish dashed out of sight
Fearfully recoiling at our childish adventures

On her swarthy banks a fig tree dangled her ripe luscious offering
Giving pleasure and joy to our avid restless tongues
Our delighted laughter defied chirruping birds
And floated in the air like falling leaves

Mutorahuku sweet river my delight Beauty of my orphan childhood With her soft liquid kisses she cured and sate my soul
Inside my ageing body
I now feel her blossoming grass, flinching fish and hostile maturating alligators
I miss her so much