What is Water?
What is water but rain but cloud but river but ocean
but ice but tear.
What is tear but torn what is worn as skin as in as out
as out.
Exodus. I am trying to tell a tale that shifts like a gale
that hurricanes and casts a line
that buckles in wind that is reborn a kite a wing.
I am far
from the passage far from the plane of descending
them,
suitcases passports degrees of mobility like heat
like heat on their backs.
This cluster of fine grapes Haitian purple beige
black brown.
Copyright © 2020 by Danielle Legros Georges. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 8, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.
“This poem began as an attempt to identify the onset of dynamics that ultimately force a group of people to leave their home country, in this case Haiti. I think maybe the question is where does one start a story involving oppression and freedom?”
—Danielle Legros Georges
Danielle Legros Georges
