A THIN BROWN EARTH - (A poem)

A THIN BROWN EARTH

The road is foggy,  though not in Texas. The sky enveloped, though not a letter. The beautiful grayness of the cloud has saddened, though not in tears but in silence, the silence of anticipation. 

The path is dark,  though not a night,  only the second hours of a once beautiful day. The wares once displayed are now concealed. The driveway deserted,  for the motorist is blind. 

The hit man is bitter,  for he must retreat. The hair is gray,  the pocket is light and the heart is heavy in fear of the morrow, for the sweet hand has dropped at the thin brown earth.

The eyes a pair of oceans,  the beauty like a magic,  the fine tendrils,  a prison inmates,  but the makeup is thicker with long gray lashes, the journey must be delayed for a thin brown earth. 

The mother hen cries out,  the young ones perplexed. The windows hard as rock,  for the  day has gone brown with the thin brown earth,  the sand dunes of the earth in the deserts of the north. 

Oh what evil is done? For the breath has ceased. Though the spirit sours, the good one must be sought, for the dying must live till the sun goes down. 

There comes the wailing of the sky like a woman in labour. But can't it ever water,  without this eerie rituals of the thin brown earth?  Alas! I am Soddened, not even with the rain but with the thin brown earth. 

The hostile kind heart,  the sand dunes of the earth in the deserts of the north. Though the heart is heavy,  the mind is set,  for life has begun and life is sweet. It is a tale to tell of the thin brown earth in the deserts of the north.

Composed: 15th June, 2008, 2:00am

    

 

NOTE:

'A thin brown earth' is a poem inspired by my first hand experience of the extreme harsh weather of Maiduguri, Borno state in the Northern part of Nigeria. Particularly the notorious harmattan sand storm which is characterized by a strong wind of a yellow haze that descends across the area, coating everything including human beings with a fine layer of dust and disrupting all activities. When this happens, it affects all aspects of human endeavors. 

This was not just an experience of an unfriendly weather to me, it was more of an art and a pivot to a more keen observation and deeper thought.

This poem was composed by 2:00am on 15th June 2008 in Maiduguri, Borno state.