Water and Silt

Water and Silt
Ever the dreamer
unable to see
as his carefully laid plans

came to naught,

and he found himself

in a century-old house

where cats had

crawled about

the matriarch of the clan

rocking in her chair

with simplistic ease. 

In a land of poverty
where nothing took to the soil
but weeds.

When winter came
you moved about
to keep warm
as if there were no walls
surrounding you.

You turned on
the creaky bathtub
faucet,
and after an
interminable delay,
there came a
burst
like a bronchial fit,
an equal measure
of water and silt.