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.