(for my brother, the farmer)

Arrows of rain
Crater the red dust plain,
Splinter yellowed tussocks
Of sharp crackled grass,
Fizzle and soak long-silent soil,
Sing new life from waiting seed.

White shoots uncurl, tentative, uncertain
Then grow bold, spike the country green
And tangle with the stirring world
As the whole greened earth crescendos.

Hearts swollen with freshened purpose
Inhale the ozoned breeze,
And wonder, ever again,
At the life that waits
Under this sun-baked land.