Rain

The pale pink early morning sky hovered low on the horizon,its glow appearing through the trees then creeping higher from the east & reflecting around the clouds in the distance, mirrored hues of soft crimson & mauve widening as the sun crept upwards to meet the day dawning. Clouds were building slowly, turning deep blue as they scattered toward the rising sun which burst forth brightly, fingers of light filtering through the oncoming darkness scudding closer, beginning to block out the remaining sunrays. Birds chirped noisily in the thick undergrowth beneath drought stricken vegetation that grew alongside a walking track close to a slow moving stream. Moisture starved acacias & melaleucas drooped, parched & dying as the promise of another dawn, another hot day imminent. The tall eucalypts struggled to keep their leaves & bark, as day after hot blistering day they shed their burdens scattering the ground with strips of long dried out sheets of bark, leaves  brown & crisp, dead from the torturing heat. The grass shrivelled to light brown & the earth shrunk in the ground lacking  life giving moisture with cavernous gaps appearing, splitting the soil into deep dark mini earthquake type gorges. Shrubs alongside the park had already given up their life, brown & drooping, they died. The stream beside the pathway had slowed to a murmur, a soft gurgle bubbling over the rocks as it followed the twists & turns within the weed endowed banks.
As the sun crept across the horizon & climbed menacingly higher, the increased cloud buildup turned dark & covered what was left of the morning's light as yesterday's heat still clung to the dawn. The gathering cloud formed thickly into a  threatening grey to blue black light that hung low in the sky, while the wind started to moan through the trees swaying the branches to & fro in the increasing storm filled breeze. Suddenly a few water droplets fell & splashed the leaves of a eucalypt, then larger ones  hit the dry dusty part of the playing field with a force that scattered the  particles to oblivion. The sudden freshness of cool rain on parched ground lifted the senses & sent them reeling, tumbling into the blissful habitat of human existence, puddling into infinity. Rain now fell with greater force, sheeting down from the heavens with consistency, spattering the ground in & out of the summer burnt grass with playful abandonment. The water came in torrents with flashes of lightning followed by loud thunderclaps nearer, the steady rain hitting the rooftops & pouring down into the gutters, the sky opening & spilling its contents bouncing off the wilting petals in the garden of the remaining flowers & soaking into beds that have been forgotten. The dried up soil took a while to filter the much needed moisture, deeply penetrating the deep dug roots of the rose bush, water glancing off the shrubs & forming into liquid puddles. The large overhanging fig tree had survived through the sun hot days to ripen & expel the dark, rosy coloured flesh of the fruit feeding the birds almost as it fell. The rain thirsty plants gorging on the moisture, continuing to enjoy the soaking of the unrelenting storm with its forthcoming downpour throughout the rain sodden day.
Slowly the clouds thinned into soft pale whisps & parted, revealing the last of the summer's day that appeared from beyond the scattering clouds spreading across the western sky, deepening darkly into a blood red dusk reflecting on the rain soaked earth.