The Call of the Stream
Our favourite stream: Abelikpien It is an early morning, windy and bright As I take a turn about this sandy stretch Watching fishers draw their long nets With straining muscles and clenched jaws From restless waters breaking at their feet My heart stole back over the years To our very own angling adventures In the beloved intermittent brook at home Wherein we bathed and played and fished And in my mind's bright eye, I see a trout Fluttering and dancing on a line. Have you read: The Mighty Abelikpien? Oft it comes about many a blazing noon That we hear the call of the stream And stealthily hasten to respond in glee Each one bearing a straight rod At whose end is tied the elastic nylon line That carries the latex or wooden float Which we rightly named ‘the gossip’ And the barbed hook right at the end Intended to impale hapless rapacious fish. In groups numbering one to many We sneak out for a nook at the brook Once snuggled