George Tardios

Nyasi (Grass)

After monsoon rains When wind shivers Grass taller than my head undulates like snakes Waves invitingly to travellers To step into its boomslang-greenness

Be wary. To step into high grass is to be enveloped In itching seeds Trip over roots Become soaked. If near a village to be covered in fleas.

Grass can become an enemy Camouflage predators. Around African huts it is cleared well-away Hard red earth is a firebreak Revealing reptiles.

And yet soft temptation drags us in. Food for our donkeys Comfortable, we think. Until covered in grass seeds Knocked stupid from stumbles Faced with thickets We begin to hack.