On Dry Ground

for Japan

Thunder UP!

Durant & Westbrook dominating

Time couldn’t go any slower

Wizards couldn’t close in the score

Shaking things up like quakes

Of the Earth in Japan

 

Mothers screaming

Running

Swimming to find land

And their children

Friends floating to paradise

Perishing in their favorite car

Resting in the peaceful waters

Quiet and absorbed

Contradicting to its entrance

 

And I am watching basketball

Comfortably sitting in my American home

At the heart of the land

Dry

And nowhere near water

Except yesterday’s rainfall

Complaining about that

And now regretting my thoughts

 

So few reunions

So few finds

17,000 lived there

7,000 only

7,000

and where are the 10?

 

And I can do nothing

But smile at Cook’s smoothly swishing three’s

And Durant’s dominating stats

And call him our own

 

But what of them?

Whose are they?

Are we not our brother’s keeper?

Our distant brother’s seeker?

I want to find you and help you

Find you and heal you

Find you and bury you

Like you deserve

 

Tsunami washed away everything but tears and sorrow

And what of tomorrow?

 

Someone donate the prime time dollars to their aches

Ticket sales and t-shirt bills to their wakes

Send concessions snacks by way of NBA-USA

Or at least the attention

 

Must we continue to forget

Until chaos strikes again?

 

Katrina

Cambodia

Haiti

Afghanistan

China

Chile

Brazil

 

And more

And all names need be said

Should be painted in the sky

But too many to give reply

Too many seconds spent silent in remembrance

While others are still missing

 

Please, find her mother

His brother

Their sons and grand daughters

Friends, uncles, cousins, and aunts

Lost in the seawater scars

Please, do not forget them from afar

 

If you have no dollars

Donate your prayers

Thoughts

And tears

Please, don’t forget to care

 

And Thunder won again

I think Durant scored like 32

blew the wizards away

in a mighty nuclear way

and it doesn’t even matter

today

 

 

Reviews

[.......]

This is amazing! So powerful.

[Morrigan Nicole]

"and thunder won again" Great!

[Yo Diggity]

The humanitarian in you shines through here. Nice job.

[Jesse N. Wall]

Wow. I wasn't expecting this. Truly beautiful.