The final piece is a poem by Gina Ulysse, "A Poem About Why I Can't Wait, Going Home Again and Again and Again." The poem starts with Gina's memories as a young child living in Haiti. She eventually leaves Haiti and returns after seventeen years. She is disillusioned with her surrounds and feels unable to "refill all the gaps in [her] past." She leaves, but returns to Haiti two years later. The rest of the poem is a haunting description of how Haiti is presently. She starts by asking how four hundred years of history can be overturned in less than a century. Although never directly answered, the point of the poem is a rant against the current environment in Haiti. There is no way to over turn four hundred years of oppression and poverty in less than a century. Gina says that Haiti is just hanging on, trying to play the game, and just surviving.
Jean Jacques Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Rev...
Portrett av Gina Krog sammen med en uidentifisert ...
English: Satellite image showing deforestation in ..."Can life exist without ideals//Can life exist without dreams//where does your soul go//when all you do is function//where does your spirit go//when all you do is function". Part of the reason things aren't getting better, or they are getting better slowly is because just functioning and surviving are in the forefront. Haitians just try to carry on.
I'm sure I could spend weeks dissecting this poem, but its complexity is not why I was drawn to it. Gina Ulysse writes with such amazing passion and emotion. I was so drawn to this poem that I found some other poems by her as well, and shared them with some of my friends. This was by far the most powerfully collection of stories I have ever read, but in particular that poem was so moving. I made a few of my friends read...