Plaaskind

plaaskind – farm child

Bare feet grate across the stones

that scatter the driveway.

The toktokkie scuttles,                                                                                       toktokkie – African beetle

scurrying home;                                                                                         beetle that knocks its abdomen  

tapping appendages                                                                                             on the ground, making a 

tip-toeing on the burning ground.                                                                                   ‘toktokkie’ sound

Legs pump, throwing the body up the hill.

Sweat runs down

between shoulder blade canyons,

making rivulets

in the sweltering oven of baked sand and sun.

Hands shade eyes

looking over the koppie                                                                                                koppie – small hill, 

of waving cosmos.                                                                                       literally translated ‘little head’

Nostrils dilate

and the warm, acrid stench of

brown, drying grass in humid air                                                                       cosmos - a plant native to 

gushes into breathless lungs                                                                tropical America with rose, scarlet, 

ready to SHOUT as                                                                          purple and white flowers that grows 

the wind bends and whips the wattles                                                         prolifically in Southern Africa

in a wild and savage dance.

Above,                                                                                            wattle – a tough Australian tree of the 

thunder rolls as                                                                                  genus Acacia that grows throughout 

lightning                                                                                                                            Southern Africa

flickers

flashing

stabbing

the indigo summer sky.

Thunderheads toss and turn,

rolling around, inky, iron grey.

Heavy globs of water

pound the parched earth.

Cupped hands of mud

hold the rain in a tender grasp.

Wellington boots splash,

stirring swirls of drowning grass.

Sunshine blurts out

stark colours of the rainbow

arching across the veld.                                                                                             veld – South African

Drops of crystal glint,                                                                                                  savannah grassland

clinging to the delicate strands of a spider’s web.

Steam rises

in smoky pathways

leaving the ground reaching for mercy

pleading to the unforgiving sun.

Bare feet grate across the stones

and the toktokkie scuttles,

scurrying home.

sometime from late 1990’s to 2003

©Eleanor Clark