For Haiti Rescue Team Members

For Haiti Rescue Team Members

The grinding sound of roaring
train announces earthquake's threatening
groan as people scream. and scream again!
Astonished terror never known, in any language
is the same--as parents die, and bodies maim.
Cathedrals crumble into dust; the Capital,
with columns fine, distorts and falls as buildings
must when earthquake tremors undermine.
They die beneath tombs of cement while cries
rise up in loud lament.

I see, and wonder how to aid. I hear,
and wonder what to do. Both age and distance
have forbade, but, suddenly I'm watching you
who leave behind both home and kin.
You wonder not, but fly right in to carry
food and water there. Not asking for permission slips
where need is strong, death in the air, the food
you bring to trembling lips sustains them.
Though sometimes too late, you never stop,
yield not to fate.

Dried blood and squalor, desperate pain
cause you and others, dawn to dark, to fly
where hope might not sustain without your skill,
determined heart. You witness bullies have their way
as smaller ones lose in the fray, and wonder
at the good you do. You weep for thousands,
pray for each. Brave doctors ferried in with you
attend to wounds as cries beseech. We.
We will send funds to help you fly with mercy
as hard days grind by.

LaVerna B. Johnson
St. George, UT
Utah Haiti Relief