Just Before The Sunrise Poem by Phiwokuhle Mpendulo Manana

Just before the sunrise
When ponds wake up,
They ripple their surface
And push the pearly gray mist
Into the reed.


Box Turtles blink at the yellow sunlight.
Then snuggle into his muddy nest,
For Silly Loon keeps him awake,
With her fussing and flapping all night long.
He scrabble at the mud,
And tuck his head into his shell,
Feeling grumpy.



In the reed,
Wild Swan hide her beak
In her snowy chest feathers.
Loon keeps her awake too.
Just because she'd lay eggs.


'WHAT SILLINESS'
Then the sun shot rays of yellow light
Over the hill,
Piercing the gray mist.
The sunlight started over Silly Loon,
She is a nervous bird.
Everything provoke her status,
And now she has a new egg to take care of.




She is a busy night,
As the sun warms the surface of the pond,
Waking the insects,
Loon left her nest,
And dive deep into the water.




Below the black cool water,
She wake the sleeping fish,
Swimming, twisting and turning,
Through the long water-lily stems.
Then she popped up for air right by
Turtles' mudbank.




Turtles is a gentle, patient creature
He tries to give Loon some advise,
Perhaps she is well learned from the elders.