A poem for Aude

Happy, carefree child
Only 9 years old.
She dances for her mother,
whirling, twirling.
The earth moves.
The house of cards comes
Crashing down.
A ray of light
Snuffed out
Forever.

Wailing cries.
Mourning. Despair.
Her brothers and sisters grieve.
Other voices rise up.
Crying for their loved ones
Lost.
Haiti cries,
"Please help us."

Life goes on
In the dust and the din
As the people pick up
The pieces of their shattered lives.
The little girl is lost,
Almost forgotten.

But her brother tells her story
To the story tellers,
Who tell the story
To the world,
To remember
The happy, carefree child,
Dancing.

- Gina

This poem is dedicated to the person who inspired it, Alex. He was a translator working for a film crew who came to Haiti to make a documentary of Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. After he told me the story of his little sister, Aude, we'd passed a bit of graffiti that really struck me.

This is a similar version, though the one I saw had hands praying next to it, and had the words "Please help us" written next to it. Apparently, there is a graffiti artist who put these up all over Port-au-Prince. I was so struck by it, I did not think to take a photo until we'd already passed, but am glad that others did. All over Port-au-Prince, there were pleas for help sprayed on crumbling damaged walls, some devastatingly beautiful like this one, and others just simple statements of how many families lived in a given neighborhood and were in need. I hope that they are not forgotten.