This is a school assignment poem by my 9th grade daughter.
The Ballad of Haiti
The sun is growing darker
Hidden behind a cloud of dust.
No life, no breathing, I can see
My smile turns to rust.
The street is like a slaughterhouse
Drenched in death and bloodied stains.
Screams and cries, they pierce my ears
But won’t take away the pain.
Collapsing to the ground
On a sheet of broken glass.
I know the wound upon my head
Won’t kill me very fast.
I smell a smell like burning skin,
I cringe and close my eyes.
The future that my mother told me,
Were those words all lies?
The world, it spins above me,
And slowly fades to black.
This earthquake took our future,
We will not get it back.
The light never returns,
My eyes, they cannot see.
Forever now, I will remain
Broken in the street.
The dump trucks come to gather
All the debris and the dead.
Soon enough I’ll be consumed
By this wound upon my head.
The light still never came to me,
My eyes, they never learned to see,
After my future ran from me,
My soul is liberated; free.
