Awake
Silent smoke shivers over last night's fire
Rooster coughs up dawn
Chop hens
Tap tap crack eggs.
Rooster coughs up dawn
Chop hens
Tap tap crack eggs.
Nostrils fill with morning mist
sticky with yesterday's sweat
Cloaks of dew bead on silent faces
coating sleeping skin.
Cloaks of dew bead on silent faces
coating sleeping skin.
Each brown dot of sand
Each rough trunk
Tickles dry palms
Scratches scarred fingerprints
Grain trickles over wrinkled skin
Parched fields beg for green.
Each rough trunk
Tickles dry palms
Scratches scarred fingerprints
Grain trickles over wrinkled skin
Parched fields beg for green.
Air, Sky, Ground
All that sight surrounds
the whole Earth crackles to life
rubbing crust from its dark sockets
opening them to grey light.
Thunderous hooves shake the grass awake
All Africa rumbles underfoot
Squawks overhead.
Heat, humans, beasts,
trees, water, sand-
the land churns.
As night turns away
and light becomes day,
a continent rises
stands and stares at the Sun.
~ Miles Merrill
