Aeneas' Descent (les Naufrages de Tana)
*I wrote this in March 2015 after torrential rains caused severe flooding in Tana. In the photo you can see the scattered houses in the rice fields that now look like floating derelict islands. I took this photo from the road nearby the American Embassy.

Aeneas' Descent (Inondations)
Once green rice fields now vast wastelands
of muddied flooded lives
Homes
kitchens
tables
bodies
beds
dreams
a forgotten ragged doll
faded photos from a wedding day--their Sunday best
a forgotten sack of sugar
underneath a mattress
a black comb
a derelict flip flop
a stack of 10,000 ariary notes saved for a daughter's birthday
a crumpled torn facture
a once vanished silver ring
All these things
All this trash-treasure
All these dreams
So many too many so many so long
Buried underneath the agnostic weight of miles of water
From the top of the hill in Ambohimanarina the ruined rice field stretches out as a darkened brown lake
The winds whipping crests across it
Slanted shanty rooftops bob out like a boneyard of half sunken ships.
Barely buoyant pirogues manned by waiting Charons ferry families back and forth from derelict stranded villages
The ariary must always appear under the tongue--something
Homes
kitchens
tables
bodies
beds
dreams
a forgotten ragged doll
faded photos from a wedding day--their Sunday best
a forgotten sack of sugar
underneath a mattress
a black comb
a derelict flip flop
a stack of 10,000 ariary notes saved for a daughter's birthday
a crumpled torn facture
a once vanished silver ring
All these things
All this trash-treasure
All these dreams
So many too many so many so long
Buried underneath the agnostic weight of miles of water
From the top of the hill in Ambohimanarina the ruined rice field stretches out as a darkened brown lake
The winds whipping crests across it
Slanted shanty rooftops bob out like a boneyard of half sunken ships.
Barely buoyant pirogues manned by waiting Charons ferry families back and forth from derelict stranded villages
The ariary must always appear under the tongue--something
someone must always be buried.
But for the sweaty dirty mama reny
in the faded ratty plastic-sheeted tent
along the digue in Tanak
Charon steals away even the cool tidal promise of death--
instead cursing reny to wander the dykes
crying for a smile
But for the sweaty dirty mama reny
in the faded ratty plastic-sheeted tent
along the digue in Tanak
Charon steals away even the cool tidal promise of death--
instead cursing reny to wander the dykes
crying for a smile
sleeping to forget
longing for sun
hoping for harvest
longing for sun
hoping for harvest
looking for a hand
praying for a path
back
home.
back
home.
Related Links:
Original post from 2015 of poem
Original post from 2015 of poem
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