Charles Jobson: River beat

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< Poems by Charles Jobson >

River beat

Crumbing grey warehouses,

cranes and pulleys:

echoes of a lost trade of yesteryear.

Deeply pungent odour of spices,

glimpses of a spreading river,

nowhere alleys and boarded passageways,

a life that lives on only

in a store of memories
ranging back to the heyday of bustling docks.

An old man rests on a rusty partition: perhaps

he has a story of stevedores and porters,

colourful language and relentless hard work.