A Tale of the River People

 

I made a hole in my neighbor’s water

So that I could build a palace,

But the hole sucked my own water away

So I built a dam

 

Then I had my water, but it would not move;

It became still, and disease broke out

Along the shores that were unburied

When I made the dam

 

So I made a spillway and balanced just right

The movement of the water;

But my neighbor had no certainty of water now,

And while I was quarrying

 

And dam- and spillway-building,

My neighbor was amassing an army

And it attacked:

My palace was destroyed

 

And now along the water, a mass of rapids

And still pools, all in chaos,

There are two holes where once my neighbor lived

And with the scarred place I am left

 

C L Couch

 

 

By rheins, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56242794