After the Rain

Poem on the differing perspective on the benefit of rain in different environments

AFTER THE RAIN – inspired by the simultaneous downpours in Cape Town and Bangladesh, July 2004.



The residue of raindrops bend and bead the restiose
and all the dry grass stems, bejeweling nature with liquid gems.
The mountainside is hung with waterfalls and each stream flows
filling the farmers dams, stilling the fears of drought.
Even the air is sparkling like champagne, bubbling with life,
tinkling with frogs, twittering with busy birds, bursting and rife
with the fertile smell of African soil, after the rain.


After the rain
The shack shelter home leaks, leans, looses the fight to stay upright,
is washed away with the flotsam and jetsam, out of sight
into the stream street where makeshift craft navigate sewerage.
Soaked to the skin survivors cling to the rooftops in fear,
hunger, thirst, despair, as their children succumb to diarrhoea.
The early Monsoon drowns the crops where they stand
and the land, of Bangladesh holds out its hand – again.
After the rain.