Jerome Betts

Down The River
 
Late summer, university ahead,
Two cigarettes proclaiming school days past.
Relaxed on smooth clear water, current-led,
Red banks, green skeins of weed, sun-spangles cast
On wriggling shadows of a paddle stroke.
Through scattered gaps in silvery willow walls
Some distant drowsy sound . . .  More chat, a joke –
And then the roaring rock-serrated falls.

Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, where he edits the verse quarterly Lighten Up Online.