To Juan Olivarez, A Distant Sunrise Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

I stand welcoming the rising sun
IOn the Myakka Prairie where morning's just begun.
The landscape's flat for miles around,
Silence, for it's miles to the nearest town.

And then the first noise you hear
Is a calf crying out in fear
That the cow has gone far away
And will not be here at break of day.

The freshness of the morning dew
Welcomes the senses to judge anew
The smell of new cut hay
That just yesterday, the sickle lay.

With the brush of a gentle breeze
Sweeping the grass and distant trees
Stirring the cool from the past night
With a new warmth to delight

And, then a bursting on the horizon
As the sun begins arising,
Colors beyond description
Cast a glow of redemption.

And you know that this is the place
Where mankind lives in blissful peace
On the Myakka Prairie, far from town,
Where man and nature are of one.

s