Drought [Revised]

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-brown-bare-tree-on-brown-surface-during-daytime-60013/

Grass grows patchy in bristling brown spikes
(if it grows at all).  The smooth-complexioned 
face of land now sunburned and cracked 
under unrelenting heat.  Fields once flush
with fruits go barren, pleading

through parched throats and chapped lips 

that no kiss of water
or answered prayer
 
has yet come to soften,

for August doesn’t care 
about religion or rain dances.

***

FOWC, W3, dVerse, and retroactively Poets and Storytellers United. I took inspiration from Timothy Price. Also inspired by one of my own poems.

60 comments

  1. That is an excellent drought poem that captures the dry and desperate plants and landscape. Thanks for the link. I so happy gave you a little inspiration for this wonderful piece.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Reblogged this on From guestwriters and commented:
    Who knows, July and August will be recorded as the warmest and driest months in Europe since records began.

    One can only hope that now, with all the fires and other natural disasters that are coming to our regions, there will be a greater awareness that something must be done to combat global warming.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Confession: this poem is made up, as, to my knowledge, my geographic region is not experiencing a drought. I just thought it was believable so I wrote it. But I do think it’s interesting that there’s such divergent experiences of weather globally this time of year.

      Like

  3. This is incredibly palpable and tugs strongly on my heart. I especially resonate with; “Fields once flush with fruits go barren, pleading through parched throats and chapped lips that no kiss of water or answered prayer
    has yet come to soften.” Thank you so much for adding your voice to the prompt ❤❤

    Liked by 1 person

  4. That is true. August doesn’t care. And I live her mostly because she’s getting me closer to fall. Yay.
    So I adore Autumn.
    Your poem, lovely. I adore it to pieces too. Thanks for sharing. Blessing as always.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. it’s been very dry here for a very long time, and brutal forest fires were so bad last year, this year has been better. getting some rain lately, but now with all the burn scars and hard dry ground, flash floods are a danger again. your poem hit a tender spot in my soul… also made me thirsty

    Liked by 1 person

    • You don’t have to tell me your location – it’s telling that several of my readers around the world have said that this is resonating with some sort of extreme weather condition in their area. Which, as a poet, was cool feedback. But as a human, it’s a little weird. It doesn’t sit well to think so many places experience this. I’m thirsty too now.

      Liked by 1 person

      • well, this is accelerated climate change in progress, this is just the start, it gets worse from here. i’m in colorado. here in the southwest, states like new mexico, arizona, california, colorado, are already starting to engage in waterr wars (and don’t mean with guns and tanks, not yet anyway, but with lawsuits and water rights challenges) right now the state of nebraska is trying to finance a canal that will cross the border into colorado , two hundred miles, to syphon more water from the platte river. we already have a water agreement with them, but they are scared, water is drying up quick out here. it’s been a rather weird legal battle. los vagas has begun the process of removing all grass from most of their public lands, replacing it with tree and shrubs that use much less water, installing drip irrigation systems, they estimate by this time next year, or sooner, they won’t have enough drinking water.

        you shouldn’t get me started on this subject, i’ll just go on and on and on

        Liked by 1 person

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