Remembering Haiti (with Jack Kerouac)

Photo by Maureen Patricia: View from Girls' Balcony

So in Haiti when the rain comes down and I sit on the worn white-tiled balcony watching the bright, bright lightening over the church and glimpse all the lush land that drinks in the sudden torrent across Hispaniola, and all that dirt drowning, all the people immune to the immensity of it and in shacks I know by now the children must be sleeping in this land where they celebrate beds, and tonight the thunder will roll, and don’t you know that God is Kilroy?  the affluent world must be donating and throwing their money covers the country, which is just a way of hiding the total struggle that ravishes the land, drenching the dust, wrapping the tents and the cardboard shacks, and everybody, everybody knows nothing’s going to happen to anybody besides the tattered tarp of temporary home, I think of Flore, I even think of orphaned Flore, the girl I couldn’t leave, I think of Flore.

Written to imitate the following passage from On the Road by Jack Kerouac:

"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty."

I did this for a class, but Haiti has been on my mind so much I felt inclined to share.  Maybe this will make you think of Haiti too, and you pray for the beautiful people there.