Dry, brittle thirsty land,
Reaching with boney hands,
In silent beseeching prayers,
To send forth the rains.
Dark brooding clouds build,
Eyes peer in anticipation skywards,
Relishing the cooling breeze,
Bringing the black forms closer.
Crashing, banging, rumbling disquite,
The storm grows ever vaster,
Consuming the sky,
Devouring the sun in its darkness.
Eager anticipation ripples below,
For relieving soothing rain,
To quench the parched dry thirst,
To begin the seasonal renewal.
Brilliant white cadescent light,
Rips and tears at the sky,
Plummits like a arrow downwards,
To pierce the earths barren breast.
Heavens roar intrudes the peace,
Sending all scrambling for safety,
Yet all still await the deluge to come,
Not knowing the final outcome.
Brown grass, sucked dry of sustenance,
Gives birth to red baby,
Silent crackle its first cry,
Raises little hands to grasp.
Eagerly it feeds from its mother,
Consuming what she gives,
Growing bigger, boisterous, bolder,
Gorging on the earthen flesh.
Crackling, it rises up skywards,
Billowing black grey smoke in anger,
Its red hands now engorged grab more,
Stuffing its growing body as it feeds.
Panic, pandemonium, pushes before,
Wild life streaming away like rivers,
As the raging inferno, now a beast,
Rushes forth upon its feast.
Blackend earth remains behind,
Devasted, cleansed of life,
Still praying the heavens might cry,
And wash away the pain.
Running rampant across the grasslands,
Its cackling laughter ringing loud,
It plays with gay abandon,
Unchecked in its raging hunger.
Sowing death, destruction, devastation so grand,
It continues its onwards march,
Unabated, unashamed, unrelenting in its carnage,
Enjoying its feast.
Desperate animal cries,
Rain up upon the blackend sky,
Seeking redemption from this scourge,
Fleeing, seeking safety where there is none.
Single drop falls forlornly down,
Plummets upon the heated fire,
Its impact not even noticed,
But it is the first...
The heavens open up in song,
Pouring forth a torrential deluge,
With eager gulps the land swallows up,
Drinking deeply of this precious succour.
The fire roars, shakes its hands at its creator,
What cruel fate is this,
That at first gives life,
Then strips you bear upon deaths floor?
Sun bursts forth, tearing apart the clouds,
Gazes down upon the blackend veld,
A wasteland of devoured shrub,
With a fathers love he does caress.
Lone figures walk the deadend land,
Seeking out anything of nourishment,
Casting glances at the cruel blue skys,
Wishing the storm had never come.
Deep down in earths womb,
Thousands of unseen green babies,
Reach heaven ward in eternal praise,
Seeking the sun, thirst quenched on rain.
Skywards they reach, ever growing,
Verdant green covering the black,
Hiding the swart scorched scar,
Bringing new life, new hope.
Within weeks, the earth once more,
Is bountiful in her abundance,
Feeding her children,
Her rebirth a miraculous miracle.
Life and Death,
Entwined within each other,
Feeding each other, off each other,
In a cycle of continious repetition.