Old Man River Poem by Steven Webster

Holy Moses
Centre me
In bearded prophet's
Gravity
Make clear the vague
Illusion
By some tolling of the bell
—Confusion—
Rings into my conscious thinking
From somewhere darkness
Deep is drinking

It's time good children were in bed
When voices whisper in their heads

Old man river
Come to me

Skin split open
Let it bleed
And taste the salty desert
Heed the ebb
Of mind's distraction
Of corpses coursing -
Sound the dirge!
In fractions
Separate the moving
Pictures
Of desert dust clouds'
Twisting mixtures

It's time good children were in bed
When voices whisper in their head

Old man river
Come to me

Hey you that shadowy like figure on the far side of the shore
Oh, my god, I realize it's me
Hey you reaching out with hands longing, nervous that the mirror might disappear
And take with it everything that's me

Old man river
Come to me
Flow through my
Wanting liberty
Make good lands
Parched and fallow
Release this raft
From dusty shallows
And shake it clear
My heart's intention
Your ever-wending
Intervention

It's time good children were in bed
When voices whisper in their head

Old man river