Surviving the Dry Season

So dry, this desolate grassy savanna

Where nothing, no nothing

Is gained without a heavy cost

Life hangs on by a shallow, panting breath;
A delicate, sticky spider's thread

Even the repulsive buzzards beg

Very nearly evoking my pity

Flailing their wings

Screeching - scratching at the ground

For a precious drop of moisture from

Water holes - long since dried

Into hardened, cracked shards of pottery

Hellish heat

Eternal inferno

Fevered shimmering clouds ablaze

Undulate with their taunting dance of seduction

Rising from the earth to appear

To my sun addled brain

As vertical waves of water

Precious … precious water

I am mad with thirst

Crazed by the relentless heat

In this arid, barren season

It is nearly time for the rains

Will they never come?
Heaven sent droplets

Falling liquid sustenance which allow us
To survive ... to live ... to thrive
I pray for the rain that will once again
Stream down my face in rivulets, like tears