Just a Sip More of Water
Souderton, PA
2021, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Rock hard ground with cracks deep and dark enough to lose a whole rupee
Stumbling around the loud cars
Begging pleading just for a couple more rupees
Naked humiliated tormented
Foreigners bend over and give 15 rupees
Enough to buy water from the stand with the smokes
Click
Gulp
Like a breath of fresh air from a suffocating sun
Another 2 hours till the section is full of traffic
Another 2 hours of stepping on stones
Another 2 hours without water I just sit down and look up
And all of my body
My stomach
My heart
It just feels pain
And I look over and see a puddle murky yellow fluids in the little hole on the side of an alley
It looks suspicious
But I can’t help myself
I drink it
Reflection
Reflection
I decided to write my poem through the eyes of a child on the streets in India, and what a potential day could be for this boy. Writing this poem reminded me to open my eyes to see how much water is an everyday struggle where children are so desperate that they take their chances on doubtful yellowy fluids. For me, though, water is a way of loving and being with my people, having water fights with my baby brother, getting into burping contests with my dad. Through the mirror that water creates of our society, I see that water, once a right given to every single living being on this planet, is now being sold as a privilege to only the rich and powerful. It shows me that even such a basic and vital thing in plentiful amounts is only given to people who have the right amount of money, the right skin tone, or even the right nationality. It shows me that the society we have created for ourselves is broken in so many ways that are just unimaginable, because water is still being taken away from innocent people, and a child who is supposed to be nurtured is being tossed into the world without a clue and being left to die because they don’t have water. Though we have this broken society to live in, when we stay wide awake and look close enough, we can see a fragile and scary story like this boy’s, and change doesn’t seem that far away.