Volume 1

Privilege

By Caroline Stahl

Water flows into blue plastic 

cups

from stainless steel faucets

and a refrigerated pitcher 

that removes the taste of chlorine.

Water falls hot 

from shower heads

mixes with lavender scented soap

in bathtubs,

rushes down the drain gallons at a time.

People line up 

set up camps in the winter 

lose time with children

lose jobs

lose vision as tear gas and pepper spray flood 

the soft membranes of their eyes. 

Blood flows like water 

when concussion grenades detonate

and shatter the radius 

of a woman handing out water. 

They do it because 

water 

is sacred

and rivers should run 

without the threat of becoming 

oil

when pipelines burst 

and they will burst.

But water 

floods basements

wrinkles pages of books

spreads grey clouds 

on ceilings when the roof leaks.

So how can it be sacred?

Girls miss school

miss childhood

walk miles each way

strain their spines

allow pain to fill the spaces

between their vertebrae

in search of

dirty brown 

pathogen filled

water

to quench the thirst of their families

Don’t they know that water 

is found

in fluorescent lit plastic rows

sold

for 99 cents a bottle?

Pocket change.

Children seize 

stare blankly at walls

can’t learn the word water

Because theirs turned brown

and toxic

when crumbling 

lead pipes 

were never replaced.

But why would they need replacing

when the people who drink from them 

are poor? 

The Governor 

is rich

and drinks water 

that flows through shiny, copper, 

non-toxic

pipes.