What if the rain had not come
like Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia too
desertification, dying animals,
crying children, folk emaciated,
and still the silent sun shines on
drying, heating, carbon fuelled.
——
What if the rain had not come?
The reservoirs emptying still
and the cracks in the ground
widening and spreading like
a pain of ball broken glass.
——
What would the farmers do?
Each of them grimly eying
rising dust from dying fields
of withering winter fodder
and apples in leafless orchards,
so many, so small, stoney bitter.
——
What would the government do
watching the golden corn die,
a poor harvest of little potatoes,
no strawberries for their tables
beef cattle dying on the farms,
struggling sheep in shipons?
——-
It will come. Will we be ready?
Irrigation ’n wells in our nation?
Or land turning into deserts in
waterless valleys, birdless hills
cos corporate greed wins again
destroying lives of those who
have
so
little
now.
