The opening stanza of the poem creates a sense of calm.
"The skin cracks like a pod.
There never is enough water."
The opening simile is quite negative. It suggests fragility and makes us think of a dry, cracked landscape. It is quite a painful image. Are the people in pain?
The next line is interesting. There is an unusual structure here - we would normally say "there is never enough water." What Dharker has done is split the infinitive - she has put "never" before the verb "is".
This could be an attempt to show the confusion of the people in the slum - are they so thirsty that they cannot even structure a sentence properly?
It could also be that the short, sharp sentence is used because it is simply the way it is - there is no room for elaboration or debate - there just isn't any water, and that is that.
No comments:
Post a Comment