After

After

the small fir is stripped
of its splendor
it leans in the corner
lonely like the family
you needlessly abandoned

the children’s love
for you, their mother fades.
Holidays come and go,
Simple checks on a calendar.

your wake, an undertow
of regret, lives broken,
possessions scattered-
a hurricane’s carnage

Ten years have passed
Since the unnatural disaster.
Christmas has left, Easter
Is gone and Thanksgiving
Is an apartheid revolution.

Today, July 4th 2006
I celebrate my country’s
independence