by Indran Amirthanayagam
I did not want to write right after the crack, letting my mind fill slowly,
Caribbean and North American plates, moving side by side, whiplashing
each other for a moment, causing walls and roofs to tumble and Fortuné
to lose his bet, just one of several hundred dead already, thousands
with open wounds, tropical storm on the way. But there are some
cheerful consequences, the truce called by gangs so rescue trucks
and supplies can move south from Port Au Prince, heroism everywhere,
doctor performing surgeries on the tarmac, a man lending his propeller
plane to lift wounded to hospitals in the capital, hundreds digging
with pick axes, shovels, hands, to free family trapped under concrete,
sparing of human life at my friend's family compound, although
the famed swimming pool full of holy water has cracked and will
require repair, but faith remains in place, survivors have nowhere else
to turn but to internal (and external) resources. Aid ships are flying,
trucks rolling, but if only money I give can assuage pain, even if it buys
no pardon, if it means just that someone will get medicine, food, a blanket.
As for the political cyclone, early morning murder of the president,
and now systematic killing of investigators of the crime, these too must
be resolved. Murderers cannot be allowed to wipe away tracks, and
the memory of this latest natural beating can only be honored by building
with bricks, leaving space within foundation pillars, to allow for swaying
with the plates when they come together again the next time.
Indran Amirthanayagam writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. He has 19 poetry books, including The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, 2020) and Sur l'île nostalgique (L'Harmattan, 2020). Indran Amirthanayagam's Blue Window/ Ventana Azul, translated by Jennifer Rathbun, is about to be published by Lavender Ink/Diálogos Books. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, is a columnist for Haiti en Marche, won the Paterson Prize, and is a 2020 Foundation for the Contemporary Arts fellow.