wrapping paper (tsunami in 2004)

I … just … don’t know what to say about Japan. Heart-breaking. I cannot write about it right now, but I did want to share a piece written back in 2004 during the “Christmas tsumani” in Thailand… I’m still not sure about this, so please leave your comments.

Wrapping Paper (2004):

There is wrapping paper at my door. In black, the headlines:
A tsunami in Thailand and a hundred
thousand lost souls.
In red are the ads, the last great sale at Sears.

I crumple the paper to wrap
red swirl
martini glasses I’m giving this Christmas;

We tear the paper, litter the carpet–
the piles of red and black wrappings, they
begin to lay like bodies.

       Oh God, the bodies!

       “and the earth quaked mightily and shook down the houses,
       wrapped them in dust.
       and the sea rose and wrapped its mouth round the children,
       swallowed them whole.”

Flotsam litters the carpet. There is nothing left to do here
but pick up the pieces. But there,
there –

God be with the people in Japan, and all those still dealing with the effects of natural disasters from someone who literally cannot imagine it.