Meanders and Sediments

:: listen to the 5.1 version (wma):: When the waters receded at the end of fall, after a long rainless period, the river under the bridges laid bare its long invisible banks, areas of the river bottom, covered for the years with soil from the fields or sediments from remote upstream regions, which the river was passing through on its way towards the town and down to the sea. The shallow mud revealed stumps, branches, rusty barrels, rocks covered with green and gray felty matter, plastic bottles, rubber boots, fish skeletons, pieces of cars, carburetors, brake linings, cans, remains of church benches, armature scrolls, children's soft toys, a creaky baby carriage, road signs with hardly legible names from long gone streets. There was even a sunken merry-go-round down the Podolí quarter.

The water seemed to grow thicker; with the saturated solution of Polychlor Biphenyls, phosphate fertilizers, sands, crude oil, ammoniac, Lysol, urine, iodine and clots of benzol chains was flowing gently under the bridges. Walking along the riverbanks, people were unwittingly deciphering texts, drawn up in the mud by the feet of baldicoots and water rats that probably were looking for shells and bugs.

Shaded by poplars and alders, the spines of islands elevated and reached towards the city, penetrating the riverside with their sharp scent. There were sounds heard from the river bottom; sounds that had sedimented and fermented in furrows and layers of mud under the water for decades: fragments of long forgotten hit songs, talks of strangers resting on benches in summer, noise of clattering streetcars, tapping of scythes, cracked voices from loudspeakers, politicians' speeches from manifestations, rattle of floating helicopters, starting motorcycles, noise of radio waves and whisper of secret messages and proclamations.

* miloš vojtěchovský *