A Poem For A Haitian Child

I have agonized over whether to hit 'Publish' on this, partly as I know it does not do justice to the complete horror people in Haiti are experiencing, and partly because I never know whether those not directly involved in the actual disaster (victim and responder) should do any more than make their donation and keep out of it.

My simple aim is just to publish some of the feelings that I've had on my personal space. Thoughts in particular for the children who can unlikely make sense of it, may even now be orphaned.

Seriously, people should not be made to suffer like this and if you have chosen to read this, I hope you will forgive my hitting publish.

A Poem For A Haitian Child

One magnitude for each year of your life,
Your look of the world rearranged in a moment,

The night sky is filled with stars,
But to you, like your heart looks empty,
As tears speed down your face like racing cars,
Your grief is all too a plenty,

You didn't ask for this,
Nor did you deserve this,
Your face now filled with sorrow,
Showing a heart feeling hollow,

Beyond the fences you see the military might,
Stocking supplies, one mile high,
Yet why is the only water you see in sight,
The mist of the tears filling your eyes?,

Right now explanations are bare,
What are we supposed to tell you child?,
If only you knew how much we care,

I hope one day you can laugh and smile,
If you can, then our effort will be all worthwhile.
Sleep tight dear child.
Explanation

One magnitude for each year of your life,

Your look of the world rearranged in a moment,

A lot of the people affected by the earthquake were young children. This is just matching that the 7 magnitude could just equal 7 years of life that they had when their lives were affected forever.

The night sky is filled with stars, 

But to you, like your heart looks empty,

With nothing to show to their names, no home, no roof over their head, just the empty expanse of the universe, all they had to see were the stars up in the sky. As the electricity will have been cut off, the night sky would have appear fill, but their lives now empty.

As tears speed down your face like racing cars, 

Your grief is all too a plenty,

You didn't ask for this, 

Nor did you deserve this,

Your face now filled with sorrow, 

Showing a heart feeling hollow,

The sadness and sorrow on their faces. Unable to process everything, they respond with the basic human emotion of sadness leading to crying.

Beyond the fences you see the military might,

Stocking supplies, one mile high,

After the earthquake, there was a massive international response to send aid to Haiti.

Yet why is the only water you see in sight,

The mist of the tears filling your eyes?,

But so much of this aid was left at the airport, not going anywhere. Desperate for water (liquid), all they would have been aware of was their own tears running down their faces, as their dry mouths gasped for the very bottles of water they could see over the fence.

Right now explanations are bare,

What are we supposed to tell you child?,

If only you knew how much we care,

How the hell you can explain this to an child....I don't know. Adults were having a hard enough time. OK, so the supplies were not getting through, but I felt that the human sentiment around the world was one of caring. International disputes did not matter as much, we just saw our fellow humans in need and wanted to help them.

I hope one day you can laugh and smile,

If you can, then our effort will be all worthwhile.

Sleep tight dear child.

I wanted to offer up my own note of thought to these children affected. I hope your future, one day will be OK, and everything will just work out so that you reach a point in time where you can say that "I'm happy"