Drought
The beginning lines of the poem make it clear that the setting is a place that experiences severe drought. These lines read, "The skin cracks like a pod. / There never is enough water" (Lines 1-2). It is not specified to whom this "skin" belongs, meaning that it could refer to human bodies or to the skin of the earth. A pod is an elongated seed vessel of a leguminous plant such as the pea, splitting open on both sides when ripe. This simile likens the cracking of human skin or the ground (as a result of drought) to the splitting open of a pod.
The rhythm of these first lines is a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables until the final word of the second line: "water." Dharker often employs irregular patterns of rhythm in her poems, meaning that when she chooses to break a fixed rhythm, it holds significance. Here, the emphasis is on water because of the severe drought that characterizes normal life for the community in the poem.
The Importance of Water
The importance of water is threaded into the descriptions of drought. In the second stanza, the poet evokes the need for water by asking the reader to imagine its sounds in the context of severe drought: the way it drips, splashes, and echoes. The sound of water is referred to as "the voice of a kindly god" (Line 6). Water is thus deified rather than given human traits in the poem. In the context of drought, it makes sense that water would be considered akin to the divine.
The third stanza describes the bursting of a municipal pipe. Words such as "fortune," "silver," and "flow" are used to describe the water that "[rushes]" and "crashes" about. The water draws a congregation of people from their huts: men, women, and children come to gather and enjoy the water. This shows that water is an equalizing force in the poem because everyone in this community struggles as a result of the drought, and everyone comes together to receive the blessing of a burst pipe.
The Presence of Children
People of all ages gather around the burst pipe to collect the water, but it is the children who particularly turn the event into a celebration. They run, naked and screaming in the liquid sun, enjoying the water that has come their way. It is this that turns the water into an active blessing in the poem as the "blessing sings / over" the small bones of the children (Lines 22-23).
This passage shows how children experience the world in a different way. Adults need to be concerned with survival, but the children in the poem (regardless of whether they, too, concern themselves with issues of survival) are focused on play. Children are included in the list of people who butt in from the surrounding streets to gather water with pots, buckets, and hands, but it is only children who play in the water at the end. It is significant that Dharker chose to end the poem with this image because it leaves readers with the message that survival is essential, but so is gratitude and rejoicing.
