Wednesday, January 26, 2005

For The Tsunami Victims, 2004

The earth groaned,
opening her wounds
one by one.

A fisherman
finds the net of his life
in tatters, nothing more
than one big hole.

A father caresses
his dead son again
and again, and again.

The waves have
washed away photographs,
faces, names.

A mother clutches
her small child, and runs
everywhere, nowhere.

Widows hug
their saris, lines of grief
mark their faces.
No flowers
for the mass graves.

An orphan
desperately clings
to his family tree.

After the waves
half the skies are empty;
a hundred thousand stars
have gone out.

Awakening -
how long before the waters
reach my shore?


On 26 December 2004, an underwater quake in the Indian Ocean caused massive waves to crash upon the shores of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and, the worst hit, the island of Aceh in Indonesia, resulting in a high toll of human life.

Published in its true form in Makata International Poetry Journal [http://www.dalityapi.com/makata], Vol. 6, No. 2, February 2005.

1 comment:

laryalee said...

Such a difficult topic to write about, but you've done it well, Ella...a variety of views, each one poignant, showing the pain of loss and the struggle to survive. The scope of this disaster is too large to comprehend -- we can only absorb it through these small windows...

Lary