Aasifa*
        Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, August 29th, 2005

in the desert there is nothing
              like this you said
              as we fled the city
the storms of Egypt are marked
                            on a calendar

there are sand swirls
              of the spring khamaseen
              and muknisa "the broom"
which sweeps the land
                            with wind

there are five-day packed trains
              to Sudan families clapping
              meat roasting on little spits
when the train stops everyone gets out
                            to sweep sand

from tracks with their hands
              we inched along the one road out
              passed warm swigs from a jug
my head dropping as pressure
                            thumped in two days

houses would lift
              from slabs bodies
              not tethered
to signposts float away
                            we didn't know

yet what we would
              speak of later so you
              could still tell how
you learned of Jesus
                            how full of hashish

and a visit with
              the camel trader
              you thought water
why not walk on it
                            stuck midstream

you rested your head
              and slept
              on a rock
until the village
                            pulled you out

*"aasifa" is "storm" in Arabic

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Copyright © 2014 Andy Young All rights reserved
from All Night It Is Morning
Diálogos Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission