Angry Sea by Vernon Swart.
in this cape of storms
waves rear on hind legs
like polar bears
slashing the sky.
gale wind drives rain
parallel to the earth
through the vineyard,
splitting the oak,
flooding the Flats,
cracking the sea wall
like an egg shell.
sweating dog summers
pant and howl in the face
of a fynbos fire
that chokes the air
and hurls pine cone
grenades at houses
and sears the mountain
coal-mine black.
sudden summer rain rots crops.
all seasons in a day –
nothing new, we say
to this Western Cape.
yet where are
the in-between seasons
when the earth tilts
with the sun shining
on Cancer or Capricorn?
somebody has flicked the
random scramble CD switch.
the weather and seasons
out of sync, no longer
sing in four-part harmony
the cycle song of creation –
spring summer autumn winter –
ordered and measured
in tones and moods
as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
and is that somebody us?
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