Haiti

People of Haiti
besieged by grinding and relentless poverty,
forever reminded of race,
children of sorrow
descendents of slaves
hounded, discredited, ridiculed
by those who have watched
with indifference your
descent into the abyss,
children of catastrophe
forsaken by the very earth
that rumbles beneath your feet,
people of Haiti
fragile is the fabric that
ties the human family to the
illusive specter of civilization.