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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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