Song Of The Chobe River Poem by Frank Bana

You were a song in my life, a short time in the singing
You taught me the chords of your being, you found me listening to the words
Together we made rhythms, and our beat was nearing harmony
Until the sheet music was torn, and papers turned in the wind
That took them back to fire and ash.

Your song is a slow echo in my being. It may be early morning
In the dawn of waking, or twilight in a sudden second, when again
I hear it. I need to place and sustain it
But cannot figure out the key, or construct the right arrangement.
I guess the planet vibrations carry it back to you,
Waiting in your house and life, listening to the village songs,
Town telegraph – as you always did.

I praise the song you gave me, and drink the tears you left me
Fallen on a round stone table, high beside this river
Which is a vein of Africa, an artery of your life,
Where languages and tributaries meet.
I will make a new song for you, because your love has asked me -
It is broken and uneven, it will seek our faded harmony
To be faithful to the river, to be sung.