There are many stories in the water
But not all will flow away
Some will sink down to the bottom
With all the things they have to say

Buried in the depths of a culture
That runs like a river from yesterday
Stories of survival of slavery and torture
And chains and whips and treachery

While you swim and while you sail
While you drink and wash your tears away
Bitten by sharks, swallowed by whales
Black took an L, but is still in play

Secrets survive millennia in the water
Powers of civilisation do not decay
Many are still lying at the bottom
Burning to build new glories another day.

Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river