END OF THE DROUGHT

END OF THE DROUGHT

Blessed holy rain,

Grace of God,

falling

straight

cold, hard, grey.

Wholly blessed rain,

thirst-ending

wet-soaking

the hot, dry earth and me.

Rain, holey and blessed.

Rain wholly rain-wet.

I have been thirsty so long

for the sigh of the grasses

returning to greenness

and release from the heat.

Copyright Ruth Hartley 1961

Written when I lived at Wedza and it seems there was always a drought on the farm.