Sonnet: The Old Well

The well that had given water to drink For years and quenched the thirst of travelers; With whose water, they’d bathed the beasts which stink, Which flowed into the fields ‘yond for farmers. The well that served for centuries thus, Men and beasts and fields, not knowing their caste; And continued to give water to us, Perennially that was so sweet to taste. The well of our ancestors, no more used, Lies in ruins now and is very deep; The corpse was found of a young man who ‘as killed! Thrown into the well and made people weep. The well that had given sweet water to drink, It has now snakes, stones, garbage, corpses that stink.