Drought

.

The dry earth coughs up dust storms

While cattle scratch at the brownness,

Their tongues having forgotten

The sweetness of green grass.

 

But the sky is closed up like

a heart that has borne much pain,

And the clouds hold back the rain

As though in just retribution.

 

Would it be that the mewling of

slaughtered beasts and the gasps

of dying fish rose up from the earth

in pangs of collective wailing?

 

 

It could be that the heavens have

a thousand ears and a million eyes?

Maybe Nature communes with itself

In a language we have stopped hearing.

 

~~~

Australia has been experiencing drought for 6 years in a row. Cattle are dying and farmers are committing suicide.