SUMMER DROUGHT (FRANCE 25 AUGUST 2022)

Green figs are nearly ripe.
Orange peaches weigh heavy on the tree.
Rosy apples fall to the ground.
Abundant fruits delight the mid-day sun
and so, too, the opportunist scavenger!

The figs will become sweet and health-giving.
The peaches, already streaked with red paint
promise nectar to the birds.
The apples offer juice and crusty pies,
being nature’s gift to all.
And in them all, we see the splendour of The Maker!

But the land is dry and fragile –
fissures and cracks form a patchwork
of burnt green and brown;
water is found only in the deep.
The surface weeps with drought.

The summer’s heat has been long, and strong.
Oh, how we thirst!
We must search the deeper levels for life
and beg Our Creator for mercy, deep…
as did the Israelites, who passed through the Red Sea, dry shod,
on their way to the Promised Land.


Let Your abundant love, Dear God, fall on us.
Restore us and quench our parched hearts.
Alpha and Omega – the First, the Last: The Only Saviour,
pull us from the dry, dusty earth
and bless us with Heaven’s fruit and rain.
Imprint on wayward hearts
Your Truth - made rich, with the very nectar 
of the beautiful world You created!
Save us, Lord of Life –
For in You, our Jesus, Your Son, we trust.


Juliehughespoetry(c)poetry3september2022