Along the River Path

Let us go, you and I Along the river,
To see the flowing life
And dreary harbourage
Won briefly from pressing cares.
To see middle year men
Restructured from their skills,
Displaced by avid, degreed youth,
One to four,
Walking slow and grim,
Eyes path tracking

Let us go, you and I,
Where dalliance rides,
And huntress females walk,
Slow stepping,
Head swaying,
With backward glance
In hope of rearward prey
They might devour to ease their pain,
Assuage their loneliness,
And father a mother bound child,
They bore another.

Let us go, you and I,
Where aged couples walk
Hard paced
Hand clasping hand
To hold the last lost youth,
And chastise the aching,
Arthritic bones;
In old remembrance
They trundle on uneased,
Slack handed and bent backed,
Eyes toilet seeking.

Let us go, you and I,
Where the women -
Business structured,
Jog for sales
Raincoat fearing
Arms chopping,
Breasts leaping,
They pound the track
To hopeful upper management
Sweat and deodorant drenched,
Without a smile.

Let us go, you and I,
Where dogs are walked
In one hour freedom
From fenced captivity,
And council by-laws
Make their proclamations
To excreta anxious owners,
Plastic bag hand readied
To engulf offending lumps,
And talk of breed and habit
Serves for interaction.

Let us go, you and I,
Where grandams and grandsires
Pram pushing, hand holding,
Guard the progeny of offspring –
Money and fulfillment bound
In Highbury homes, professions,
Home late: ‘Its quality time’,
‘All the things I never had’ –
And vain
Endeavor
To give
Warmth the children crave unknowing,
Trouble-eyed.

Let us go, you and I,
Where cyclists terrorize
And walkers stroll and stand,
Talking of weather,
‘Too hot, too cold,
We need the rain,
Isn’t it a lovely day,
What’s the forecast?
I haven’t seen you lately
I thought you’d given up,
Mind that bike.”

Let us go, you and I,
Where truant guilty children
Of ‘at work all day parents’
Sneak sly-eyed and wary
Hiding from their daily classroom torment,
Of mathematics,
English,
Chem. and Phys.
Forged sick notes
Headward carried
In vain hope.

Let us go, you and I,
To see the old man
On the slatted seat,
Gazing across the
Brief dip of the river
To other days.
Be-sticked, bent backed
He daily shuffles to
His memory place
In hope of someone.
He waits in vain.

Let us go, you and I,
To the Path,
And see the flow of river life
Across the seasons
The come and go
of muscle making
Fat reducing
Fresh air hunting
Release seeking
‘Let’s go for a walk’
Users of the River Path.