Dawn

While people are still safe and warm in bed
birds perching on their nests, balancing
on the topmost branches and on electric wires
call out gladly to each other, 'Prepare.'

Then, gradually, change happens:
the darkness of night wavers, hesitates,
submits to a greyness in the sky.
Light struggles slowly for birth.

Long, cool shadows tip-toe across the waiting world
of fields and forests, towns and mountains,
stretching out silently as a cat's paw-steps,
growing sharper as seconds tick by.

Now the crescent rim of brightness pulls over the horizon,
dragging up its blazing, orange body,
till, as if with a shout and a roar,
like a mighty, grand chord of an orchestra

the full orb of golden light escapes its hiding place
to chase the shadows scuttling away.
Glad glory engulfs the expectant earth;
the day awaits its glorious birth.

There's no stopping it now. It climbs higher,
striding into the ever-brightening sky.
beckoning people from their beds
to greet the sun and honour Him who created such splendour.

August to September 2020