A Beautiful and Haunting Haitian Poem

A member of our team found beautiful and haunting Haitian poem below. Read, enjoy and let us know in the comments section below what it inspires you to think about.

Each drop that sinks through the night
Is a cup of bitter coffee in our stomachs
Dew trickles from our eyes
streaks the gunpowder
that coats the jaws of dawn

Hawk strangles daylight
Pecks sunlight into pieces
Light flickers three times
Before the whole day dies

All four freedoms under arrest
Our dreams held in tin cans
Our silence breaks
Patience blisters among us

You watch for the storm
measuring out your hem
to the four directions
You weigh the ocean on scales
Thunder cracks three times in your palm

When wind breaks the law
Whose blade will gash its haunches?
When the ocean shakes its underskirt
Who will say it has no breeding?
When thunder comes beating the kalinda
Who will rise to dance?

By Emanyel Ejen (original in Haitian Creole)
Translated by Merete Mueller