Church Stands Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

Church stands

Haiti is target once again
this time for hurricane
Mathew, murderer
killed almost a thousand.

She reports after her departure:
"I saw the houses gone,
church stands strong."

And my thoughts wild as are
borrowed wings to fly…

I was child and mother said flood:
"Ran through with trees and the rocks, "
and went on: "everything taken out…"

Then somewhere in the tale inserted:
"My aunt held her Koran…"

As mom said the woman floated in flood
for long time, yet alive

"It was thanks to Koran,
she held it to her chest
too dear, very tight."

Church stands, I assume is the same story:
"It is God's Miracle! "

No one talks of shanties as houses
Nobody mentions cores of the shrine
No one says how it was built so strong
Yes is built by the poor's work and blood
Yes by the same shanty men; dead and gone
Yes palace of the Rey lasts too long on our backs.