The skin cracks like a pod.

There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,

the small splash, echo
in a tin mug,
the voice of a kindly god.

Sometimes, the sudden rush

of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues. From the huts,
a congregation : every man woman
child for streets around
butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium,
plastic buckets,
frantic hands,

and naked children

screaming in the liquid sun,
their highlights polished to perfection,
flashing light,
as the blessing sings
over their small bones.

The simple, stark opening stanza is concise and declarative. It implies difficult
lives — ‘there is never enough water’ evokes poverty and hardship.

The opening simile could refer to the skin of humans who are dehydrated for
lack of water, and also the ‘skin’ of parched earth in un-irrigated fields.

Note the hard consonants in ‘skin’, ‘cracks’ and ‘pod’, suggesting crackling
dryness. Ironically, a pod cracks open when the seeds are ready to be planted
and germinated. In this parched country there will be no growth or
regeneration.

The imperative command and concise depiction of the water in the tin mug
suggests how important it is to those who have too little. The command is
important. The poem is addressed to those in temperate Western climates
where water is taken for granted.
The ‘tin mug’ suggests poverty. There is relish in the vividness of the
description of the rare, precious liquid. The onomatopoeic ‘splash and 'echo’,
are senuous, as if the speaker loves what he is portraying. The fact that the
speaker can hear the drip at the bottom of the cup suggests that it is usually
empty

This is a metaphor indicating that the gushing water is the result of divine intervention. The
‘kindly god’ isn’t capitalised, and could belong to any religion, as if the blessing transcends
religious divisions.

This is a truncated, grammatically incomplete sentence, as if there is too little

time to worry about such niceties.

The sibilant alliterative ’s' in ‘sometimes’ and ‘sudden’ imitate the sound of

flowing water.

The noun ‘fortune’ is ambiguous, meaning luck, as in ‘good fortune’, and wealth. Both apply
here. Water is hugely valuable to the people.

The prosaic ‘municipal pipe’ juxtaposed with ‘silver crashes’ highlights the
contrast. Everyday life is mundane, but on this occasion there is what seems
to be a near-miracle.

The description ‘silver crashes’ is lyrical. The water appears silver-coloured,

but is also like a precious metal. The onomatopoeic ‘crashes’ suggests
something momentous, signifying divine intervention.

The ‘flow’ is personified. The water has acquired its own life.

The alliterative ‘f’s in 'flow’ and ‘found’ suggest the smooth journey of the
water.

The ‘roar of tongues’ is a device known as synecdoche, in which the tongues

represent the people who are making this noise. The ‘roar’ in this context
suggests joy, but it is also an animal sound that, in different contexts, could
imply aggression. It would normally be used to describe an animal sound, but
here is used in relation to humans; a device known as zoomorphism.

The desperation for water could indeed turn to anger and belligerence.

The ‘huts’ reinforce the idea of poverty. The ‘congregation’ picks up the hint of
religious fervour, the ‘kindly god’ of the first stanza.

Note the consonantly rhymed ‘butts’ and ‘potts’, with percussive, plosive ‘b’

and ‘p’, imitating the sound of the hubbub of excited people and clanking
containers.
This is an asyndetic list, without the definite or indefinite articles, ‘the’ and
‘and’. The frantic events move too quickly. The poet again uses words with
percussive, hard consonants.
She ends, though with ‘frantic hands’, another example of synecdoche, where
the ‘hands’ represent the people. It is as if they and their buckets and
containers are jumbled in the frantic rush to capture the water.

This connotes innocence, vitality and hope. The children’s nakedness

signifies not only innocence — they are too young to be self-conscious — but
poverty. They are also untainted by the worry and desperation of the adults.

The ‘screams’ of joy bring to mind the ‘roar of tongues’ in the earlier stanza.
Joy and pain are close in this poem.

The “… liquid sun”, shows impact of water on them. It represents hope, like
the sun rising, while the gold colour represents wealth

The tone changes in this last stanza, from poverty and panic to joy and hope

This is a lexical field of descriptive words; imagery relating to light and

sunshine and glow. Picking up from the previous reference to ‘sun’, there are
now ‘highlights’, ‘polished’ and ‘flashing light’. All of these suggest hope, like a
religious revelation, the dazzling gift of the ‘kind god’ of the first stanza.

Note also the rhythmic alliterative ‘polished to perfection’ to add to the jubilant
scene.

The ‘blessing’ is personified, suggesting the personal act of the ‘kindly god’ in
the first stanza. The sibilant ’s’s in ‘blessing’ and ‘sings’ are themselves song-
like.

The ‘small bones’ of the children indicate vulnerability. But it also reprises the
early description of dryness; bones are thought of as dry and are a metaphor
for death. Maybe the poem hints that once the water pipe is repaired their
parched lives will return and children may not survive the terrible conditions.

This poem describes how precious water is to poor people in a hot climate (in
this case India, in the largest slum of the continent), where thirst is ever-
present and there is dangerous shortage. The ‘Blessing’ of the title refers to
the burst water pipe, and the panicked and near-hysterical reaction of the
people who are granted this unexpected gift of gushing water that is difficult to
save. The end of the poem is a note of joy and hope in the delight of the
children with a sinister undertone.