Before We Built the Dam

A poem

Photo by on

Parched, we approached
With trepidation and concern
Not wanting to encroach
But with an empty cistern

“May we please have a drop”
Was our gentle, meagre cry
“The dam made the rivers stop
And our cistern has run dry”

The omnipotent gates part
To a tiny suited man
High nosed and dressed smart
And with a contract in his hand

He looked us up and down
With a contemptuous little sneer
Then with a disapproving frown
He said “sign here and here”

So we signed and signed again
At his smugly delivered whim
Raised our bucket to the drain
And filled it to the brim

“Remember this little favour,”
Was the word he used for the loan,
“It’s ridiculous to think that, without labour”
“Water’s something you could own”

We walked away in despair
But with a saturated tongue
Kicking stones, dry and bare
Of where the rivers used to run

And we talked of way back when
The great construct began
And wondered if it was better, then,
Before we built the dam