The mingled scent of jasmine, rose, and oleander usually intoxicating
Becomes cloying in the early morning mist, the humidity trapping the scent.
Bird song a cacophony so shrill it blisters the eardrums;
once sweet music telegraphed from the ears directly to the heart.
Dark gray clouds tent the land to hold back the sunshine
Flowers hang their heads and shrink into themselves
The earth is parched; cracks split the land where rivers flowed
Love has died; hearts stopped beating, stones wrapped in apathy
The cloying smells cover the scent of death of honesty, character and loyalty
Shrill cacophony replaces the art of conversation and compromise
Charcoal replaces the colors of the rainbow, a world of monochrome tilts
People stumble in the gray fog refusing to lift their eyes to Heaven, God mourns
(C) Victoria Ramsey
