Dusk

DUSK In the famine ravaged lands The atmosphere is pregnant with uncertainty Of what tomorrow brings forth A herdsman leads his malnourished goats Into their pens with their fable cries barely Audible as hunger pangs strike ferociously Carcasses of starved animals carpet the roadside As the aura of starvation fills the air Leaving a trail of destruction and hopelessness The scotching sun hits the already dried up River beds as a sand storm prepares to hit Disolence is that is left in this once promising land The old men sit in groups under A partially dried acacia tree Murmuring in low tones The hot humid wind hits their faces As their wrinkle filled faces Betray their empty stomachs and the Ambiguity of the future As dusk settles in the women Stream back with empty pots After miles under the merciless sun They have nothing to show off their Hard day’s work but empty containers and Dejected hearts As night falls no children can be heard Playing out but they scramble for One en’goi to quench thirst in their Sour throats oblivious of the danger they are under But the level of desperation knows no bounds As hunger pangs tear through their scrawny pot bellies The babies suck their mother’s empty breasts Their hunger cries pierce through the silent night From the corner of the mothers eye A tear drops as the intensity of baby’s cry elevates But the determination and the will to live super cedes The pangs in her acid filled stomach and with A weak barely audible voice she says It shall be well my child As streams of tears roll down their conspicuous cheekbones BY HOMIT