Poem: The Well

— “Give me this water.”

We had no running water

when I was a boy,

not even our own well.

So I toted water for Mama

from a well across the road.

It was Bonds Lee Agnew’s well,

but back then

neighbors were like that.

If they had it and you didn’t,

they shared.

I turned the winch

on the windlass,

lowering the bucket

into the dark.

It always came up

full and overflowing.

I never doubted it would.

Little boys are like that,

trusting the world given them.

But boys grow up,

and they learn that sometimes

wells go dry, ropes break,

buckets come up empty.

Life is like that.

The years pass.

Boys become men,

men become old men.

I’m now one of those.

But every day, I still go

to the well.

I lower the bucket

into the deep,

turn the windlass,

and wait to see

what comes to the surface.

Then I write it down.

Robert Hamblin is an emeritus professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, where he taught for 50 years and served as the founding director of the school's Center for Faulkner Studies. He is the author or editor of nearly 60 books, including poetry, fiction, literary criticism, biographies and memoirs.

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