300 Million Volts Poem by Deluke Muwanigwa

300 Million Volts

Small clouds bandied together
Shepherded by different gusts of winds
Winds not able to agree on common temperature
And common space to share
Trees sighed and sang in jubilation at the tug of war
Shedding leaves as if to pay the ground self serving taxes
The ground accumulating humus

The sun playing hide and seek
Behind darkening veils of water vapour
Encouraging the clouds to fight
Water vapour coalescing into unsettled charged particles
Wet icicles irritating each other
Unnecessarily rubbing each other the wrong way
Threatening each other with extra judicial expulsions

Humans fretting at the unfolding deluge
A farmer told 'Make hay while the sun shines'
Clouds make hail while the sun hides
A housewife scurrying to remove the almost dry washing on the line
The clothes line tethered one end to a tall tree
And the dutiful woman not aware of 300 million volts

300 million volts
Under the tree
Under her feet
On the clothes line
And in the ground she stood on.

300 million volts
Preparing a bolt
'Do not stand under a tree during a storm'
'Keep your feet together in a storm'
'The safest place to hide in a storm is a vehicle'
Too little too late
They were there
300 million volts

C 12022022