Below is one of my favourite poems which was written by James David Rubadiri, some how the poem stuck with me from my youth untill now and whenever it rains i cannot but recite a few lines like a lithany. Below is the poem enjoy as i have always enjoyed it.
An African Thunder Storm
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From the west
Clouds come hurrying with the wind
Turning
Sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locusts
Whirling
Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing
Pregnant clouds
Ride stately on its black
Gathering to perch on hills
Like dark sinister wings;
The wind whistles by
And trees bend to let it pass.
In the village
Screams of delighted children
Toss and turn
In the din of whirling wind,
Women –
Babies clinging on their backs –
Dart about
In and out
Madly
The wind whistles by
Whilst trees bend to let us pass
Clothes wave like tattered flags
Flying off
To expose dangling breasts
As jagged blinding flashes
Rumble, tremble, and crack
Amidst the smell of fired smoke
And the pelting march of the storm.
James David Rubadiri (born 19 July 1930 in Liuli) is a Malawian diplomat, academic and poet, playwright and novelist. Rubadiri is ranked as one of Africa’s most widely anthologized and celebrated poets to emerge after independence.
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