Haiti :: Recent Headlines

A new Prince
by Pat Darnell


Who is the new Prince of Haiti;
He claims the rumpled boulders
that were once a city?

Don't jump into the rivers
Keep yourselves clean
Don't panic.

A man with fever arrives
he is carried into the tent
he was living in a tent
in San Marc

In only hours
this Prince charged amongst us
it devoured many and left us grieving

He came at us from miles away
from upstream
from the clay and sand

This new Prince
is bigger than our president
bigger than our 1000 camps

bigger than Jan 12 earthquake
that claimed 300,000 lives.

This Prince ...
is bigger than God.



Copyright © 2010 Patrick Darnell

Emancipated

I was not rated
so I cannot be underrated
so of course...
never overrated likewise

When I say
the hole in my chest
is a fatal wound
bleeding from raising children

It should create impact
it is a symptom
possibly of disloyalty, ambiguity
from shelter people in their
profiteering

On my account; no festival please
Hope, no reveling
just surviving
making life one more day

No furnished bisque
no bouquets, no nosegay
only charity schisms
perchance escape criticism

Don't know why
Don't know when
Service became a job
and Public Works became a business

It has something to do
with water to live on
that Living Water promise
made reproachfully

I approach carefully
a common door
once I go through
I am emancipated, or so.


Copyright © 2010 Patrick Darnell