The Gift of Water

Earthquaker Issue 101

The gift of water

A film review

 

plip

    plip


    slow-dripping,

           rippling, dimpling

with pond skimmers,

    diving, sliding, brimming,

            lapping, lulling, pooling,

    cooling, playing under leaves,

smoothing her pebbles

            fresh river water

translucent as truth


next: a chilling scene:

barebrown

sludge

trenched churned

rigid-ridged

not a single

grassblade whispers

under

earsplitting grind

of a Caterpillar


it looks like Gaza

it's not Gaza

not open-cast

not Amazon logging

not fracking


      turns out this is how

the rain can return:

     slows, swells, swales,

sinks to aquifers,

            softens the ground,

remaking life

    possible

in its immeasurable

           multiplicity

very soon

           that same desert

is green: a grove,

            a lake,

    a garden

of earthly delight - look

    at old Rajendra!

he can't hold in his joy

    it overflows and spills like

the gift of water

           flowing from life to life

     village to village

heart to heart

Stevie Krayer