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Wednesday, 4 January 2012

The sounds of summer in Southern Africa


On a hot summer's day
on the beautiful african bushveld
the cicada's background noise
make it feel hotter than it really is
and a grey-headed bush shrike plays 
hide and seek with you

A red chested cuckoo and the burchell coucal
sing of the rain to come
whilst in the rainstorm the frogs bursts out 
in their joyous grateful song
with the rumbling thunder as their beat

just as you light the braaifire
you catch a glimpse of an orange tail
as a paradise flycatcher flies past to his cupful of nest

Somewhere in the not too far away
in their gorgeous turquoise attire
a woodland kingfisher and his friend
is practicing for the Christmas Choir

2 comments:

  1. Even though I don't know what most of those birds look like, I can envision them in my head by what you wrote. To me that is what poetry is all about.

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