Thursday, August 02, 2007

Drought

There is no rain. The leaves are brown
and curled, and crisp at their extremities,
the pastures dried and hard. The cows
are eating winter hay. Midsummer’s breeze
stirs up the dust, then sets it down
again, unchanged: a lesson in futility.

What shall we do? We who are here
in this dry place, where furrows etch our skin
and blood we spill is swallowed by the air
look to the west, and to the west again
for signs of storms which don’t appear.
No clouds are gathered on this horizon.

Anxiety and fear well in our throats.
Brittle as grass, the crushing weight
of our insufficiency swamps our hope
and builds our supplication for our fate.
As if our prayers will make rain less remote,
as if we can do anything but wait.



A super-rough draft. Hope all who read this are well.
Peace.

7 comments:

Deb said...

Some great lines you have here, Sasha. Complex images along with foreboding. I like it.

Constance Brewer said...

This is a wonderful start. The line "The cows are eating winter hay" is very telling.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I'll try and send you some of our rain...

Pauline said...

I'd like to see the revision process you go through. These lines -

"As if our prayers will make rain less remote,
as if we can do anything but wait."

are some I hope don't change - they make a perfect summation.

Tumblewords: said...

I'm glad you're the editor. I'd be inclined to just love the piece and call it done! It has depth of hope and resignation.

S.L. Corsua said...

It's the rainy season in my country; a tropical storm has just made a house call. The season, however, hasn't been in its usual mood... to the point that agriculture here has been suffering for the past month and has been predicted to worsen. So the need for rain has been a newsworthy snack for the media for weeks. Even the church ordered every priest to hold a special prayer for rain...

Your poem has just reminded me of that. In fact, the content is skewered home. ^_^

Anyway, by the looks of it, the rhyme here and there (especially in the last stanza) makes me think if the piece will evolve into a rhyming poem. Just wondering. Hope I get to see the new 'do' of the piece.

Cheers.

S.L. Corsua said...

Ack, I meant that I was wondering as regards the rhyming aspect of the piece, i.e. whether or not you'll be polishing it further. ^_^

Be blessed.