A man slides

into a porcelain tub

with jets of foam and

a shower head that

spouts liquid diamonds

onto a cap of warm suds.

The water beads on his

scrubbed face, then

streams,

pours,

gushes

down the bronze drain cover.

            Glug. Glug.

                        Gone.

                                    Another man,

                                    one of twenty million in Mexico City*,

                                    stumbles on dirty toes,

                                    raw from grit

                                    on the cracking sidewalks

                                    under which pipes leak

                                    dark water,

                                    tinted with desperation.

                                    He cranks the rusted faucet handle,

                                    stiff and smeared with grime,

                                    until five drips find his dry taste buds.

                                               Tomorrow there will be four.

                                               Then three.

                                               Then two.

                                               One

*number derived from article, “Mexico City Keeps Sinking as Its Water Supply Wastes Away” by Carrie Kahn Sept. 14, 2018 on npr.org: “for five months of the year, many of the metropolitan area’s more than 20 million residents don’t have enough water to drink.”