By Jennifer Rahim
For the earth has spoken,
to you, her magma Creole.
Full-throated syllables, up-
rising from deep down,
an honest elocution —
rudimentary sound: guttural
nouns, forthright, strong,
the rumbled conviction of verbs
unfettered by reticence
as the first poetry of creation.
A secret has passed between you
so wonderfully terrible,
it laid your cities prostrate,
raptured your citizenry.
Now, we look to your remnant
courtesy cable TV
and garble theories thinking
ourselves saved.
Only the wise among us pin
our ears to the ground,
listening in hope of catching
even a half syllable
of the language forming
like a new world on your tongue.
Jennifer Rahim, "Haiti" from Ground Level. Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Rahim. Reprinted by permission of Peepal Tree Press.
Source: Ground Level (Peepal Tree Press, 2011)
Poet Bio
More Poems about Arts & Sciences
Poem with Human Intelligence
This century is younger than me.
It dresses itself
in an overlong coat of Enlightenment thinking
despite the disappearing winter.
It twirls the light-up fidget spinner
won from the carnival of oil economies.
In this century, chatbots write poems
where starlings wander from their murmuration
into the denim-thick...
Listening in Deep Space
We've always been out looking for answers,
telling stories about ourselves,
searching for connection, choosing
to send out Stravinsky and whale song,
which, in translation, might very well be
our undoing instead of a welcome.
We launch satellites, probes, telescopes
unfolding like origami, navigating
geomagnetic storms, major disruptions.
Rovers...
More Poems about Social Commentaries
From the Sky
When I die,
bury me in the sky—
no one is fighting over it.
Children are playing soccer
with empty bomb shells
(from the sky I can see them).
A grandmother is baking
her Eid makroota and mamoul
(from the sky I can taste them).
Teens are writing love...
Poem with Human Intelligence
This century is younger than me.
It dresses itself
in an overlong coat of Enlightenment thinking
despite the disappearing winter.
It twirls the light-up fidget spinner
won from the carnival of oil economies.
In this century, chatbots write poems
where starlings wander from their murmuration
into the denim-thick...