in the square
there is no tin cup for change
only lace from a wedding dress

and a derailed train

the dark call of leaves is open to interpretation
but the stranger, for once, is silent

COLLAGE FOR THE DEAD
For those killed by the 12/26/04 tsunami

There came a stillness, and there came a storm,
and all the oceans came.
I dig, you dig, and the worms dig too,
and that singing out there says: They dig.

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I was looking at them from another country
And I cannot tell their story.

Show me a word I can use.
Show me a verb.

Let them speak for themselves.

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"My son is crying for his mother,"


"I think this is her," he said. "I recognize her hand."

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To help relief efforts click here.

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Notes: Each stanza comes from the following source:

1) Paul Celan, THERE WAS EARTH INSIDE THEM, and they dug
2) Ariel Dorfman, Vocabulary
3) Bejkhajorn Saithong, Sri Lankan survivor of the tsunami, as reported by Reuters

her words, a spider web
enters the universe
unsaid

wandering without mercy
the stranger entered the room
the rest, of course, was left to chance

Beads of salt spray stop me, like crying metal.
-Annie Finch, Calendars, p. 8

it is cold, gray, and quiet
the pine tree in the park is dying

across the great divide
white is not a color
but an essence

this is the passing of a quiet light

like windows we seek
winter and the end

-in Memory of Agnes Martin

the door is gray weather
there we see birds without wings

the backbone is the ridge
no horse will cross

the hoplites have vanished