Afghanistan.

The children of skeletons and ashen skin burden to the water
as the midnight sky curves rose—
planks of wood contour circular with twine.

Chad.

Three hours in, children approach the once plentiful lake.
Salamat girls pray to their god, frail hands folding,
as the drought quenches the last of the wetness.

Laos.

The Mekong River swallows capillary flows in humid sand.
A feeble wish ascends for a monsoon or a miracle—
nourishing the earth’s moisture to streams.

Ghana.

The Bosumtwi flows with fogginess.
Pairs of cracked lips whisper their health to the devil sip by sip
as the brittle youth fractures.

America.

Creamy skin clasps the chrome,
igniting the purified stream to a crystalline glass—
disregarding the day’s strain of the children of skeletons and ashen skin.