Refuges: A Poem

Written by Iljas Baker

I switch off the air conditioner, roll up the blind and then open the window. It’s still dark. I listen to the birds singing and calling. It’s early yet so they are not out in the numbers they will soon reach and the sounds have more silences between them it seems. I listen for the virus but it’s silent. I pray a prayer of the Prophet (PBUH): “We take refuge in God from God.” There is a world of understanding in that, but modern humankind is immune to it – immune to what brings relief but not to much that threatens their well-being. Later I take my usual cycle route. There’s a slight breeze that cools me and I increase my speed along a broad landscaped distributor road. Then I turn into a narrower distributor road that leads to the lanes where the houses are. Suddenly I stop. In front of me is a golden shower tree, with a profusion of intense yellow blossoms. It’s a wonderful, uplifting sight. The golden shower tree hasn’t been planted along the distributor roads and can be found only in gardens. This particular tree is in a garden at the mouth of a lane and hence adjacent to the narrower distributor road. Its branches hang over onto the road and many of the trumpet-shaped flowers will eventually fall there and almost completely hide the hard surface of the road.

tree in a garden

yellow flowers effulgent –

its secret revealed