Summer Time In South Africa Poem by Niki Nicholas Nkuna

Summer time in South Africa ushers in hot weather, rainy days,
Sprouting of miscellaneous creatures from the mother earth,
Plants, insects, snakes coming out of hibernation,
Everything natural becoming beautiful,
The mountains green and colourful,
Even domestic plants, flowers and lawns,
So beautifying to the physical environment,

The rivers full with muddy water in the beginning,
Everything in abundance,
God gone haywire in appeasement of the hungry,
Love affairs also sprouting like flowers blooming everywhere,
Abundance of flowers,
Abundance of lovers!

The greening environment, grinning at the skies,
Thanking the heavens for the summer season,
The supplier of food and energy,
Abundance of edible grass and plants,
Abundance of mating mammals,
Abundance of insects,
Abundance of shrill sounds,
Abundance of cows,
Abundance of milk,

Tractors roaring, ploughing after the rain and during the rain,
Planting hurriedly to forestall the passing of season,
Farm labour finds itself in competition with weeds,
Foreign plants to be killed and not chased out,
Rain water fuelling the resilience of unwanted plants,
The good, the bad, and the terrible reign supreme,

Truckloads of child labour, trucked in to fight the summer scourge,
And to allow the non-encroaching plants to enjoy summer time,
Farmers are frantically propelling the wheel of seasonal farming,
To move in tandem with the passing of the season,
Flooding rivers swept all dry leaves and dust,
Exposing the rocks which in turn exposed the scorpions disgorging from underneath,
Suddenly there is more game to chase, kill and feast on,
More insects to sort and discard outcasts,


NN January 2012