the tragedy
what about the girl who threw herself down the stairs
to get the baby out
she’s been bleeding for 2 weeks
a long time to bleed in a poor country where there isn’t enough food
only rice and everyone is living in plastic tarps
hurricane season is coming
so the baby is a real inconvenience
I mean the baby can’t be a real person
it’s to be got rid of
it’s already hungry and it can’t be born hungry
the girl is tall and graceful
in the way island women are graceful
they have air under their feet
even in the lacerated streets
they float
they glide in their golden shoes
babies are a nuisance
they need milk and fish and mangos
there is no milk
no fish
no mangos
at least not for free
all the girl has is for free
she has one dress and three brothers and the dead
all around her
buried under the mountains made of concrete
they once called it Port au Prince
now they call it a graveyard
the death city
where the dead walk
looking for their bones
waiting for their bones to be found
liberated from what has crushed them
dumb bones
waiting for the dump trucks and the street crews
with their shovels to move the mountains
rubble
where everyone lives now
crumbled
broken
the dead are thick with their demands
still the girl bleeds
quick choose what to save
here in the charnel grounds
there is no time to sleep
2 comments:
This is haunting.
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