We Are Still Dreaming Of Haiti Poem by Hebert Logerie

We are still dreaming of Ayiti
A country of dreams
A country without truce
A country of nightmares
A country of turmoil
We're dreaming of this once beautiful country
Where the flowers were the most beautiful
Where women were the most ravishing
And the birds sang better than elsewhere
An oasis where we dreamed of a perfect happiness
Ayiti, a country of caresses
Ayiti, a country of sadness
Ayiti, a country in distress
Ayiti, a country of a thousand and one braids
God, we are still dreaming of this exotic paradise
Of a soil that trembles and burns with madness
Where at nightfall, the jasmine perfumed Mother Nature
We are always thinking of this country of adventure
Ayiti, a country of hate
Ayiti, a country of grief
Ayiti, a country of suffering
Ayiti, a country of resilience
Haiti is a country of fire where blood flows
From the top of the Boutilier hills to the Saline
These are the anathemas of Jean Jacques Dessalines
This is the price we pay when we assassinate
The Father of the Nation. It's an unpaid debt
Where interests will accrue until eternity
Ayiti, a country where thugs are capable
Of doing the most heinous crimes never imagined
Ayiti, a country without truce
Ayiti, a country of nightmares
Ayiti, a country of dreams
Ayiti, a country of battles
Ayiti, a country where one dies for nothing
Like cats, rats, mice or dogs
Ayiti, we still dream of this once beautiful country
That her own children sold her for nothing and betrayed
Her like the disciples of Judas. Ayiti, a tiny lot of land
Where corpses are everywhere, it's a huge cemetery
That refuses no one: the guilty and the innocent
Ayiti, a country once of love
Ayiti, a country once of bravery
Ayiti, a country once of respect
Ayiti, a country once of peace
Ayiti is a funnel that would never be satiated with blood
And where the tears wash the pavements and the cries muffle
The bullies. Bereaved women no longer have a voice to cry out
Children rush to grow up to face corruption, vices
And the shenanigans that roam the streets and the offices
Ayiti, a country where hope is very thin
Ayiti, a country where everyone cries
Ayiti, a country where the shore water is sour
Ayiti, a country where too many people are dying
Some birds have stopped singing
Even the most robust and restless roosters
Ayiti is a country of division
Where the force does not come from being united
But from the heavy weapons smuggled from abroad
Which endanger everyone's life
Ayiti, land of heat, is now at war
At war with herself. Ayiti, Haiti, in the past
The pearl of the Antilles, is now an ignominy
For all who love her. They dismantle
Destroy, vandalize, loot and slap this beautiful country
Every second of the holy day. Oh! Ayiti
Ayiti, Haiti, the land of fire
Oh! It's snowing and it's raining
On Ayiti, a country of dreams
A country that's suffering and dying
A country where insecurity and fear
Rule or govern. Oh! Ayiti, the land of martyrs
Listen to the bastards! They burn and they shoot
They steal and they still kill. The state is null, absent
In the hemorrhaged streets, like the rivers of blood
We still dream, dream of Ayiti
Formerly our oasis, our country, our paradise.

Copyright © February 2020, Hebert Logerie, All Rights Reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several collections of poems.