Fwd: Poem of the Day: Healing Will Come: Elegy after Natural Disaster

[Arnold Richards]

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From: Poetry Foundation <in...@poetryfoundation.org>
Date: May 21, 2023 at 10:03:08 AM EDT
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Subject: Poem of the Day: Healing Will Come: Elegy after Natural Disaster
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Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to view it in your browser. Healing Will Come: Elegy after Natural Disaster By Patricia Jabbeh Wesley She searches the ruins like someone who has wandered so far away. Six children, I had six children, she tells herself. All around, her world has become twigs of splintered pieces of a long-ago life,                          not so long ago. She lays down one child alongside another child, alongside another, but then, she stands there, wiping her eyes, looking ahead, turning over the ruins of pieces of a place that once was, in the ruins of a life that once was. But they were six children, she says,                          six, dead, or alive. A mother knows what it means to have six, not three, but six living children, not three only, dead, and there, the tears, calming for now, calming, for now.                          Always. What would I do without tears, I used to ask myself in another world. What would she do without tears, I now ask myself, and now, the water from her eyes, unlike                          the water that has taken everything away with it. Somewhere, always, somewhere, there’s a day when healing comes. Wasn’t this what life was supposed to bring, after death, the healing? Healing refuses to be lost to death, I say, healing will come. A Note from the Editor The American Red Cross was founded on this day in 1881 by Clara Barton, the organization's first president. The Red Cross provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the US. Source: Poetry (June 2022) Please note: We strive to preserve the text formatting of poems over email, but certain email clients may distort how character indent, line wraps, and fonts appear. View this poem online More about Patricia Jabbeh Wesley Biography More Poems by this Author Subscribe to Poetry Get Poetry You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poetryfoundation.org. You may unsubscribe or change your newsletter subscription preferences at any time. © 2023 Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation 61 W. Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 USA