Page 55 - vera-kilgore-heilig-her-poetry-lives-(2017)-h-morris-williams-and-marie-law-haire

Vera Kilgore Heilig: Her Poetry Lives (2017) H. Morris Williams, Marie Law Haire

Cisterns

“My people have committed two evils. They

Have forsaken Me, the fountain of living
Waters and have carved for themselves

Cisterns of stone.” Jeremiah 2:13

I carved myself a cistern thinking I
Would catch the rain and thus have a supply

Of water I could call my very own,

Water that I could use and I alone.

No longer need I trudge with heavy urn
Down to the village well and wait my turn

To fill my pitcher and perhaps to share

The water with some traveler waiting there.

The water that I caught was sweet at first
And it was cool and fresh to quench my thirst.

My own hand had supplied my need

And self-sufficiency became my creed

But when the rains failed and the dry days came
I found my water did not taste the same.

Tepid it was, and stagnant, and in time
The cistern walls were covered with green slime.

I had forgotten that the felling rain
Comes down from heaven and goes back again.

I had forgotten that the soul must drink
From living wells or it will dry and shrink.

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