Dry Bones Of Cows In The Heat Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

Dry Bones Of Cows In The Heat

Rating: 5.0


Dead bones with no flesh on them
So dry you could touch the heat
Dead bones of cows that died
More dead than the dry bones
Once spoken to and raised by biblical
prophets that chant the songs of
A heaven unseen and unspoken of.

Bones stripped and strewn asunder
Once they walked in the heat
As cows drinking with rib cages
That breathed and changed under
Skin so thin it could go through
The needle of time and disappear.

Walking bones that disappear
When the milk fails to come out
And the children wonder
For all they know is milk
Why has the sun become so cruel?
Why is the shade gone from us?
That thirsty and dry and hungry
We stand and wonder as the beasts.

When there was rain we sang
With voices so clearly full of mirth
We could be heard beyond the mountains
Like the bulls that bellowed afar
As they walked home to our kraal
We eat soft leaves with them
Fight over them like calves
That have gone without any milk
And died for that is better
Than living in the veld so dry.

This year of the big drought
Is painted on the bones
That the child born this year
Will be named after
For this is a year of pain
Let us name the children drought
and also name them dry bones.

The clouds in the horizon
Do not bring hope anymore
They do not turn black
They do not rise hopefully
They just rest afar
As far as the eye can see.

They do not bring the windy cheer
That made the children dance
And made the whirlwind sing
As the swallows flew in flocks
As they went in the direction of the rain
We once knew when life was in the chain
Of a time that changes with seasons of hope.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: drought
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
I went to southern Africa and walked in the heat and wondered how it could be so hot. They have talked about global warming. I did not know that it would mean so much misery. Farmers watched their cows die. I saw the white dead bones of a cow. They were dry, white and lay there as if someone had left them there. The drought hit me hard. I realized that the people of Swaziland were suffering. The drought meant they were losing their stock. I wanted to cry for a land I once knew and then decided to write this poem. Global warming is real. We need to think seriously about climate change. We need to talk about it and know it affects different parts of the world in different ways.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Dr Antony Theodore 06 July 2016

Global warming is really real....... seasons of hope. it is always the poor who suffer and die when the climate becomes merciless. this is very descriptive and clear and simple, , , , , in thoughts and in words....... love this poem. i had a chance to go to Sahara sometime ago, i went there to meditate staying in a Kloster........... i understand your words, your poem, your cry and emotions....... thank you very much dear poetess. tony

1 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success