When Repiblik Ayiti Crashed

You know, until now, we never acknowledged you.
You also know how you're the only nation congealed from the blood
of a slave revolt on the first day of 1804.
You know, Port-au-Prince, how you've played the pauper.

We knew you were flying white flags because you couldn't afford color,
We knew you were coming up a population while breaking down immunities.
We knew you were building cities out of iron wrinkled and leather-red in time.

We found out that even the familyless homeless praise jesus for their fortunes.
We found out that a black Frenchman, Jean Jacques Dessalines, can raise a nation to its feet,
but that his successors will never give
that nation
_________________________________________________________a chair to sit down
in_________________________________________________or a glass of water to drink.
We found out that somewhere between three thousand phlegmy gangs and scratchy blankets
of primarypoverty, a people can still make a beautiful language sprint between their mouths.

You can still build homes along dirtish hillsides and ignore the discretionless excretions.
You can still congregate without roofs, without walls, without windows.
You can still sing your iloveyous to spouses and children caught between bricks and mortar, pillars and floors.
You can still call on your Taino to guide you to Pic la Selle where the earth won't eat you.

But we only started looking at you.
Noticing your dimples and cigarette burnt arms because you fell in public,
you broke so many bones, and
we cried when we saw how much blood escaped the homes of your veins,
just on their way to the city of your clock.
We never saw you before, broken friend, but we want to come to your rescue now.
Because we can and because you can't pay those medical bills alone.
Why we feel bad now, for you, for now, is beyond us.

But we're here.

Maybe because a slam on the table doesn't get our attention, but a smack across the face does.
Maybe because your tears with gouged-out eyes made us do more than just change the channel.
Maybe because you needed to become white with asbestos-powdered noses before we put you in

the spotlight.