Beyond Grief

BEYOND GRIEF


Wails of sorrow echo around
the gathering night,
Air thick with choking dust and flies
Settling on coagulated blood while
Oozing through the aftershock
Of silence:
Life itself runs dry
Or drains away.

For this is Haiti on a Tuesday afternoon
When the deep earth fell
And broke her back:
Paralysis of all that makes the
World go round – and loss
Of life, and loveliness and hope.
“And where is God?”
The people plead in vain.

Yet stoned, and crushed and even
Crucified on broken beams, these people rise
Again defying pain and cracking thirst;
Sockets dry, hearts bereft.
How sadly simple can it get
When Simon says
A rock feels no pain, and
An island never cries?



In prayer for Haiti
January 2010