Twin Biographies Poem by Sam Muller

I was shown a stream today,

Just a silent trickle of water
And a few minor puddles,
Between weed-choked banks,
Unadorned by feathery ferns or water lilies like stars,
The dwindling home of miniature fishes,
And was told of its past.

Of the time it was a rambling torrent,
A spring of life for tired men and hard-worked buffalos
At the end of a long labouring day.

Now it is too shallow,
Even to reach my ankles.
But the water is still cool,
Even in the midday heat.

I recognised in it
The biography of a county.