1. During
when we arrived the north wind
flung gravel through trees
grass seethed at a blood clot sun
smoke stole back clouds
burnished everything in rage
a nightmare halo
we had come for the waterhole
to slip through that green sleeve
but fire howled in its rose cathedral
an asphyxiated dome groped for air
ash went after songless birds
and we gulped in the petrifying world
2. After
through a groove in the grass
flattened by rain
there is just enough of an opening
to see the scalp of the land
is still flaking
the grass bends
beneath the weight of water
a hoop genuflection
a soaked weave
impossible to pass
after the storm
when insects lace
fluted columns
and bars of sunshine
the mynas return, urchins
that never stand on ceremony