"If the foreigners don't come, we'll have to wait for baby Jesus"
--75 year old Haitian Woman
She is on guard
with her broken hip
waiving her cane at the looters.
She is scaring them away
From old folks she is protecting.
They have been out of water for days she says and
The only thing they can think to pray for is water--
A simple drink of water.
I am ashamed of my thirst.
Ashamed I have asked her to speak.
When all she has to say, or ask of me
Is for a drink of water.
I say, I don't know
The water is coming--the water is here
At the airport and the look she gives me
Makes me ashamed all over again.
The foreigners coming to help
Have plenty of water
And all of these poor people
Can think to pray for is
A simple drink of water
She waves her cane
As if to say go--go away
And let them know
We need water here!
Return when our prayers are answered.
The water, piled up at the airport
Is handed out--
A mountain of water with
more on the way.
We have to get this into the town--I say
To the Marine in charge of the distribution
They'll have to come here--I am told
Our orders are to distribute
from here
until the roads are clear.
But, take as much as you want sir--
help yourself to
A simple drink of water
Twenty cases--all I can take
back to that alley
back to those poor people
back to that old grandmother
swinging her cane.
Every bottle was absorbed
as soon as they landed there.
How could the old grandmother hoard a single bottle?
How could she deny even the looters--
A simple drink of water?
WPCannon
19 January 2010
Mount Vernon, Alabama
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