Category Archives: disaster

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.

the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (as written in my journal)

Not sure why I thought to look up my journal entry around the time of Katrina, but I did (maybe it’s all the reading about the BP oil disaster). And it brought back the fear and the horror and well, I thought maybe it was good if we all took a moment to remember. Tragedy, with time, is very easy to forget for those not involved. Sounds preachy, but true…

journal entry 9/1/05 12:58am

“tonight rumors
that I had lost my job
that gas stations were closed
that bodies were still
swimming in the sewage
overtaking New Orleans….
one of these is
true.”

“this is for sure an unbelievable time the unthinkable is happening – it was really only a matter of time. Katrina– cause of the flooding of a city that always meant good times always meant debauchery, laughter, the lazy life, laid back Southern style. now the streets just sewers of debris and bodies. people are dying. people are losing all sense of right and wrong. that breakdown of society that ID that can no longer be contained and the rest of us… helpless? watching mouths open. we sleep and wake to see more bad news and that gas will hit $4. only a matter of time.

we are so fortunate. so now when it is quiet we can say a silent prayer for the Gulf Coast and a secret sigh of relief that it wasn’t us. blink it could all be gone. right now, is there any other way of thinking? nah. and now i should sleep and get ready for the morning….”