Haiti's Earthquake Horrors

(In Ballade Form)
















Those memories keep on flashing;
My head is as heavy as lead;
Desperate hands in marl scratching;
Earth shakes; rubble covers the dead,
And buildings toppled like slice bread;
Folks are reeling from serpent's sting
Devastation around them spread;
Folks are reeling from serpent's sting.

Folks still dying; houses crashing ;
Voodoo gods wave oracle creed;
The aftershocks are nerve-racking;
Food, shelter and medics they need
To flee, to the hills with great speed
On life support and any thing;
America comes with airspeed;
Folks are reeling from serpent's sting.

Here and there dazed folks are dashing,
Like animals in a stampede,
With rubble on ground formatting,
And child-eating spirits mind read
Squalors' brains, to plant dreadful seed;
The jail fell, jailbirds have no string;
Babies are crying, can't breastfeed;
Folks are reeling from serpent's sting.

Prince Harry in Bimshire indeed;
He fundraised in a socca swing
For Haitians, to help stop their bleed;
Folks are reeling from serpent's sting.

© Paterika Hengreaves
February 3, 2010/Barbados