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You are at:Home»ARTS & LIFE»Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Second Place: Jeannie Wallace McKeown of Makhanda
ARTS & LIFE

Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Second Place: Jeannie Wallace McKeown of Makhanda

Jeannie Wallace McKeown won second place for her poem, 'Water Crisis'
Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailMarch 23, 2023Updated:March 25, 2023No Comments1 Min Read
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Jeannie Wallace McKeown came second in this year’s Avbob poetry competition with her poem ‘Water Crisis’. Photo: Supplied.

Water Crisis  

by Jeannie Wallace McKeown
 
My bucket is flimsy,
no good for heavy lifting
although water is heavy – 
ask the women who walk kilometres
to brown rivers, or township taps,
25 litre containers carried
on their heads.
 
Privilege works in strange ways.
I walk only to my back garden, 
to the green tank on its plinth.
I bend to half-fill my bucket,
carry it through the back door.
This first ten litres is for 
the paper-clogged toilet bowl.
 
Another half-bucket drawn,
tipped into the sink 
to soak supper dishes.
I am grateful beyond similes
for last week’s rain;
not enough, never enough,
but the tanks are full.  
 
No amount of rain 
will solve the water crisis.
The treatment plant fails, 
pump hydraulics grinding to a halt;
machinery rusts unrepaired.
Under the roads, water pipes split their seams.
Raw sewage gathers in dips and streams.
 
Each evening a wave of humanity
heads home, west to east,
carrying a river’s worth of water,
captured and bottled
in cheap 5 litre plastic,   
transported to homes 
with dry taps 
and no backyard tanks.

Previous ArticleResidents of Extensions Nine, 10, Transit Camp, Phumlani and Enkanini voice discontent!
Next Article Flooding at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works
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