When December Month Does Come (Eclogue) Poem by Gert Strydom

When December month does come
I want to go to the rural districts, back to home
and you do ask me what I want to do right there
when I can go to parties in the city, be anywhere,
while the townsfolk go to the shining sea
do party where the lights do shine are happy full of glee?
Do you think that rural life does capture a person
and at the farm the work does go endlessly on?
While we walk from pen to pen do notice cows and some sheep
and the thunder does roll far off on the distant hillocks I do breathe deep,
do catch the smell of the farmyard; hear in the distance a farmhand shout
and under the shade of the old oak tree I want to stretch myself out,
do want to see the green cornfields, hear the guinea fowl call.
The veldt is full of wonders some great and others small
and I want to talk about the days that are gone
about how out here God still is the supreme One
and I want to hear the calls of birds, the buzzing of bees
see the smallest flower and pick fruit from the medlar trees,
I want to experience tranquillity
find a deep emotion of belonging to a place that is free,
a place where everything still is plain.
and deep in the veldt for long moments I want to remain,
want to wiggle my toes in the hot red sand just for fun
and late in the afternoon watch the setting sun.

[Poet's note: December is high summer in the Southern Hemisphere of the earth.]