After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The
shouting and the crying
Prison and place and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now
dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the
sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should
stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst
the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
[poem excerpt from T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"]