The Casuarina Tree (Southern Rhodesia) Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

The Casuarina Tree (Southern Rhodesia)



Whence came you,
Wind from the sea,
Singing through
The casuarina tree?

Across what lands forlorn
Where your breath passes
Over granite and gnarled thorn
And bending grasses . . .
Ranges aloof, alone,
By man's foot untrod,
And pools none has known
But the stars and God . . .

Grey forsaken kraals
Of the ancient races,
Where the past's shadow falls
On their vacant places . . .

Streams where the duiker drink
In deep secret kloofs,
Stepping down to the brink
On slim delicate hoofs . . .

Uplands empty and bare
To the rain and the sun,
Where the bright lizards here and there
Flash and are gone . . .

With your restless voice waking
The wandering heart once more,
Like the sound of surf breaking
On a far-off shore,

Why come you,
Wind from the sea,
Singing through
The casuarina tree?

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