Indian Walls

INDIAN WALLS

With Apologies to Robert Frost

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Wall in waiting, wall unfinished



Something there is, in India, 

That wants to build a wall, 

That wants to build one up,

Stick by stick, stone by stone, block by block.
That pulls East Indians from their usual torpor,
And sets them working even in the hot-hot sun,
Building walls where oft there is no need

Other than the need to build a wall

Just for the sake of there being a wall.

First, build a wall

The heavy work is mostly done by women,
In colourful saris, with bare feet and hands. 
The men direct or simply stand and watch:
But they must supervise all working women,
To ensure top quality. 

The walls they build,

Of blocks or stone or rocks or wire or wood,

Are often never finished, or if they are,

They seldom last beyond a season

Or two at most.

A necessary but useless sign

So when you see them you might wonder why
Anyone would bother building them at all.
But an Indian wall may serve 

So many different uses.
And least of all to keep things in or out.

The highest purpose is so obvious
That all detect it when they’re passing by:
‘Hold your nose or use a handkerchief?'
The smell of urine reeks and lingers long.
But there is also more:



Construction waste by wire fence

The Indian wall is also such a useful place 
For throwing litter, garbage and all else.
Here there is no need for proper landfills:
The walls provide a perfect place for all.











The bigger the better, but what for...?

 And if one asks, 'Instead of walls,

‘why not use toilets, dustbins?’
If one dares to ask the question ‘why?’, 
I wonder if it might put a notion 

In the Indian wall-building head:
'Why do we build so many walls? Could we
Not build something else more useful?
But here there are no toilets,
And Indian men prefer to pee on walls.
So never mind the walling in or walling out,
As cows and goats and pigs roam free as birds.




Train tracks also make good toilets!

In India, 'Something there is that loves to build more walls.'  It could be sheer stupidity, 

But it's not that exactly, it’s more a lack of
Common sense – and toilets.  

If Indians could just take a moment, 

To think their actions through
To organize and plan, as other peoples do.
Then maybe they could stop wall building

And concentrate instead on useful things

Like water systems, proper landfills, sewers, toilets

And transportation systems that actually work.

But no such luck because you see, 

'Good walls are making good toilets!"