The old man remembered of bad hurricanes
He survived in Florida, in the past,
How the heat seemed to be crushing his brains
And might have done it if it could last.
That, and the wind that roared like the thunder
And the lightning that flickered like blue-white flames,
Rain hammering as if paid to push you under
The floods of the storms given human names.
Whatever was not built of steel and concrete
Might as well have been made of mud and thatch.
Power lines and poles, the grid almost complete,
Tore off the land like a pasted patch.
Ports of call on a luxury vacation
Sing in chorus the post-disaster blues:
No place has been left for luxuriation;
The ships will have to continue to cruise.
Vacationers must be told now that they may go
Further south to Antigua or Trinidad.
Montego's income routes to Tobago?
When Jamaicans say that, we know it's bad.
Though the three peaks of Trinidad are splendid,
Though Barbados is rich in scenic beauty,
Though Aruba has often been recommended
To those who think seeing the world's a duty,
Still the sight of a tourist dollar slipping
Away from Bermuda and on to the south
Surely turns fresh-caught fish, and the very best dipping
Sauce, to ash in the businessman's mouth,
As the businessman climbs to his roofless attic
To empty his storerooms into the street,
For keeping foods frozen or chilled's problematic
And they'd better be eaten while fit to eat,
See Jamaicans standing in cheerful order
While they wait for their luck in the street below;
They are not desperados at the border;
With their usual wit and good humor they go.
May the oilmen in Port of Spain remember
The source of the growth in their tourist trade,
While the islands to their north spend November
Cleaning up the mess that the Monster made.
Update: In addition to Mercy Chefs, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, ADRA, and Catholic Relief Services are active in Jamaica. They have a good supply of local unskilled labor. Send money.
Despite State's dry response at their official web site...
...the Organization of American States has a solid social network in Washington. No island will be forgotten. Each island has its own government, its own churches, its own way of dealing with the situation...and its own friends on the continents and on the more fortunate islands.
This bit of Bad Poetry owes details to many online sources:
The old man who remembered "what a Category 5 hurricane feels like" was Joe Jackson at theviewfromladylake.blogspot.com.
The video of Jamaicans cleaning out food storerooms, throwing cold stuff out from windows and in between roofless rafters to people who could use it right away, came from the Oppenheimer Ranch Project on Rumble.
Photo of broken electric power line in Jamaica: NPR
Photo of damaged building: Al Jazeera
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