summer shower

Soft grey powder lifts gently, drifting slowly earthbound to fill and blur footprints. A hot lazy breeze puffs dust over already burdened leaves, hiding the beauty of the foliage in a pale coat. Distances shimmer. Ants scurry, building levees, oblivious of the heat.
Their activity telling tales of changes too subtle for eyes blinded by technology.
The breeze droops to oblivion, unable to sustain itself in the heat.
All is still.
A furnace wind surfs over the tree tops, sucking energy from all living things in its path. Once drooping leaves begin a crazed dance in the wildness of the wind. twigs and dry grass lift and fly. A lone bird battles the rising wind, dipping and swaying, frantically beating its fragile wings, desperate to reach a safe haven.
Majestic white mountains begin to fill the painful blue of the skies. The wind leaps up and shoves them around like a half crazed sheep dog let loose in the flock. Thunder rumbles deep in the belly of the beast.
Lightning tears the sky. Thunder roars a full throated defiance at the wind, shaking the earth. Bloated drops plod heavily on parched soil.
swifter, smaller drops follow, cascading in glistening silver curtains, obscuring all from sight.
The scent of the soil, drinking thirstily, is rich and metallic, coating the tongue and nostrils and etching itself into memory.
Diamonds sparkle on leaf tips. Cleansed and coll their beauty revealed, the leaves show exotic blues, antipodean greens. Paint splashed trunks of pink and white, grey or red, smooth and slender, reflected in puddles at their base. Double rainbows splash bright across retreating grey cloud banks.
Steam rises wraith like, dancing eerily atop rapidly evaporating pools of water.
A lone bird splashes in a shallow pool, fluffs and shakes its feathers dry. Long grooming strokes then it spreads its wings and lifts into the eucalyptus scented air.