Saturday, January 14, 2023

El Paso

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS


El Paso

 

The crisis in El Paso unfolds

Like a slow-motion catastrophe

A tsunami rolling over a coastal village

A hurricane in the ninth ward of New Orleans

A line of twisters rocking through tornado alley

A derailed freight train screeching with twisted metal

 

We see it coming

We observe it building to the moment of impact

We watch it unveiled in heart wrenching detail

but we are powerless to stop it

 

The freezing cold is moving down from the arctic

Barreling down like a Russian missile barrage

Honing in on the border of Texas and Mexico

Centering on the city of El Paso where hundreds

if not thousands of Nicaraguan asylum seekers

wait in huddled masses yearning to be free

Soon they will want only warmth and

shelter from the storm

 

We watch and wait from the other side

of our television screens

Pleading with people we do not know to

somehow come to their aid

Is there someone who can help?

Is there someone who can ease their suffering?

Or must we watch as we watched Katrina?

Must we watch as we watched Fukushima?

Must we watch as we watch so many

tragedies unfolding in slow motion from

the other side of the television screen? 

 

El Paso find your heart

El Paso find your empathy

Only you answer the call

Only you can ease the pain

 

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