Imagine the drip of it,
the small splash, echo
in a tin mug,
the voice of a kindly god
Dharker's poetry often engages multiple senses, and this poem particularly relies on auditory imagery. After evoking conditions of severe drought, the speaker instructs readers to imagine the sounds of water. These sounds include "the drip" of water, "the small splash," and the "echo." Significantly, the speaker does not evoke a large rushing body of water, but rather the sounds of small amounts only. This contributes to the sense of desperation that occurs in places of severe drought. Between sixty and seventy percent of the human body is composed of water, meaning that it is essential for survival.
In the poem, the sounds of water are described as "the voice of a kindly god" (Line 6). This demonstrates that the people living in the poem's urban setting consider water to be a divine source and are grateful for whatever amount they can access.
Sometimes, the sudden rush
of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues.
This quote recounts the instances when the people in the community are able to access a large amount of water because of a bursting municipal pipe. The first lines that describe this read, "Sometimes, the sudden rush / of fortune," and the sounds and the sentence structure give the impression of water (Lines 7-8). The sibilance of the /s/ in the words "sometimes" and "sudden" and the /sh/ of "rush" mimics the gushing sound of water. This is also a nominal sentence; it does not contain a verb. The poetic syntax of this phrase evokes the suddenness of the situation before even describing what happened.
The word "municipal" specifies the poem's setting as urban. "Water" is then replaced by the word "silver," denoting it as a precious resource. The "roar of tongues" evokes the chaos of the situation as people gather to collect and enjoy the water. Like in the earlier stanza where the speaker instructs the reader to imagine the sounds of water, this passage is rich in sonic imagery.
and naked children
screaming in the liquid sun,
their highlights polished to perfection,
flashing light,
as the blessing sings
over their small bones.
Everyone living in the huts from the surrounding streets gathers around the burst pipe, but it is the children in particular who enjoy the water and transform it into a blessing. The imagery of this passage focuses on the way that light and water interact: the light is a "liquid sun," the children's "highlights" are "polished to perfection," and the light flashes with their movement. Just as the sound of water is deified earlier in the poem as "the voice of a kindly god," here water is referred to as a blessing that sings (Line 6). The poet bestows active and divine qualities upon water "as the blessing sings / over their small bones" (Lines 22-23). Ending with this image shows the necessity of children (as well as their playful presence in the world) for the continuation of life. The act of gathering water demonstrates hope for survival, but the poem's central image is the playing children. The total gratitude and enjoyment that children are capable of contributes to the community's survival.
