Life Line
for Antoinette Penha

are you grieving or what or where

suffer because you’ve not checked in or called home
worried about your whereabouts
emotionally, mentally, actually

how together we were
before the earthquake struck
before the earth shook and took so many Haitian lives

have to do without you, I don’t want to
want to cling to you in whatever times
have you cling to me

where are you holding on,
what side of the boat, of the ship, rocking

must put up with the rolling waves,
the ship’s pitching, as well as worried about
how you are and where

want to get my arms round you, want to know you are secure

empty hole where, in me, all last weekend, you filled me up

what has extricated you, evacuated why, abandoned, why

vicissitudes of life pull us apart
these to attend to, I want you home, want you with me

connected as we were before earthquake divided us

poem I make with pen and ink, is all one line
a length of rope I throw out

end for you and one for me
if one or the other were to fall overboard
into the sea or into the sky above


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
3:03 a.m. 15.01.10