We prayed for rain
Gentle soaking rain to end the drought
Rivulets to trickle gently along cattle pads
filling boggy hoofmarks at the dam’s edge
diluting then the stagnant boggy sludge
We prayed for rain
To soak into the cracked black earth,
gently bringing life to barren plains.
Filling deep holes along the creek bed
where only slimy shallow water lies
We prayed for rain
To soak down to the roots of grass
so feed would grow waist high.
Cattle now raw boned and frail
would graze and once again be strong
We prayed for rain
Lush feed to strengthen breeding cows
with fat bellied calves to suck their fill.
We would dance in gentle soaking rain
rejoicing that all would yet be well
We prayed for rain
It rained – but not in answer to our prayers
This rain assaulted the cracked black earth.
For seven days the relentless onslaught
turned each creek into a raging flood
We prayed for rain to stop
Instead it made the black soil plain a sticky bog
where weakened cattle staggered on and on
till most fell exhausted in this dirty inland sea,
too weak to take another lumbering step
We prayed no more
Wind chilled weak and wet-through cattle
huddled together to drag what warmth
they could from each other even as they died.
Piled up now in grotesque bloated heaps
We will never pray again
Poddy calves we had named and reared by hand
lie dead in ones and twos along the broken fences,
striving perhaps to reach long remembered comfort.
Will we ever erase these images from our minds?
Others will have to pray now
For help and courage to bury all our dead
Strength to feed the few that have survived.
Each day is now so desolate and bleak
yet in anguish and despair we must move on
© Tropical Writers Inc 2024
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