lessons learnt in summer

June came in gently -
like the breeze caressing
the lace curtains in my bedroom.
Sun streaming through,
patterns on the wooden ceiling,
eyes not yet used
to a sky so clear and blue.

June was a gentle lover.
Love in June was true.

In sunny summer did i meet You -

entity I must call Father

God who has a Son.

I saw You in my brother,

and all the quiet ways 

my hometown loved me.

and the showers that came - 

sometimes gently, 

most times fiercely

dreaded nightfall now 

with good company.

I enter July with hesitation

for I must now prepare to say goodbye.

and God - how time flies

when you do not have to survive

the hours that crawl by.

I can feel the winds of change

passing through my childhood tombs,

and all the columns of trees i climbed.

new neighbours and their porcelain white walls;

farmland now facing 

a grand "unity mall"

and all the evening walks -

now muddled,

from the earth they dug up.

In August, I realise

that despite my praises,

my people are no different.

the poor create God for happiness,

for the poor must create in soil and rain,

and it must suffice;

while the rich get richer,

and warm themselves up in their bubble,

taking homes, making stores -

despite the lives it takes,

all for the right

to call this earth "mine."

Certainly,

when I return,

I will no longer bear the same face

and the people I love will have gotten used 

to calling out my name.

And in that familiarity, 

will i forever remember

how the wild winds of change

came uneventfully, summer 25'

and swept my childhood away.