Grief

                                                            grief

Emerald sparks of Arugam Bay

Tanni, Vaterah, water of life

Rolls gently in, laps at the shore

Trickster the mask of serenity.

The wave is a wave of corpses.

Arms, legs, hands tangled

Desperation grabbing

My knee brushes cheekbone

My foot , a child's belly

Green has turned crimson

The sea has swallowed life.

White school uniform and a small girl's

       pierced ears

Wooden stakes that pierced a mother's center

     water smashed your skull to concrete

You have stolen my love you have

          Stolen my world,

   Yet it was Cruelty,

that did not take

         me, too,

to rest on the oceans' floor.

                                                                       April, 2005

                                                                        Arugam  Bay, Sri Lanka
                                                                                    -Emilie Parry

[I wrote this poem while working in Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean tsunami response and recovery; at the time I was working for an international NGO, but previously had worked and lived in Sri Lanka, working for the Sewalanka Foundation, www.sewalankafoundation.org]