When Summer Comes

The moody Diamantina's twists and turns
can churn with violent waters when in flood
then quickly dry to waterholes and mud;
this river will not tolerate mistakes.
A creature living there thus quickly learns
to fit its habits to the river's mood
and in its search for shelter and for food
must bow to rules the Diamantina makes.

Last year the summer changes happened fast
and all the river's water quickly shrank
to mudholes as the thirsty season drank
its fill. The little crabs that burrow deep
in riverbeds to sleep till summer's passed
all scurried to their holes – safe deep and cool…
except for one young crab that played the fool.
Too late it sought the river's rules to keep!

The summer sun burned hotly, and so dried
the soft mud in the river bed and round
the towered holes in which most crabs now found
their rest, it turned rock hard. Caught at the base
of one such tower, trapped, the little crab now died.
When summer comes to country out that way
the wise take shelter – and take care to play
the game by rules, as Mercy hides her face.