Creased hand pressed to dry lips

Lips push tight to dry palm

The palm is cupped like a child’s

The child is eating sherbet –

Meets water, dissolves at once.

Or hand cupped to pull water from a puddle?

(Cue images of drought,

and stooping, cupping, scraping of

far-away-people).

I didn’t know what he was doing

I thought he was eating sherbet

So I watched him for a while, pushing

with one hand

a trolley across a dirty floor,

the other the creased, dry handface of a faraway person.