HELLO!!!! IS ANYBODY THERE!!!!!

Desperate: People queue for water on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Picture Courtesy: www.dailymail.co.uk


Cholera is now endemic,
Everyone’s catching it,
It’s like back in the 1970’s
When the world caught disco fever,
On every street corner,
Colourful wigs
Tights,
Dresses with sequins
And pumps were common.
Down here,
Ours is cholera,
But the last time I checked,
Cholera had a cure,
So why should we be dying of it?
It’s been 10 months now,
Everyday we shout out,
From dusk till dawn,
Calling out,
Hello!!!!!!
Is anybody there!!!!
All we hear in response,
Our own voices echoing back to us,
Is there anybody there!!!


Food has become a luxury,
It is no longer a basic necessity,
The children no longer play in the streets,
They are too hungry to try,
Best to reserve the little energy they have,
Three square meals seems like utopia here,
Can’t remember when I last had three meals in a day,
Last time I ate twice was when
An aid worker spilled a ladle of rice,
After I was done with mine,
I helped myself to the rice that lay on the bare floor,
That was the day I ate twice,
That was the first time in 10 months
I had eaten twice,
Hello!!!!!
Is anybody there!!!
Can you hear me?
I probably must be dialing a wrong number.


Potable water is a stuff of dreams,
That which runs through the gutters,
Pools in depressions
And runs through channels are hard to come by,
One cannot afford to be thirsty,
We no longer drink water because we’re thirsty,
We drink at specific times of the day,
That is if we come across something to drink,
We can no longer afford to shed tears,
After all,
That’s water going to waste,
So when we absolutely must cry,
This is how we choose to do it,
Cup your hands underneath your eyes,
Collect your tears in there,
And gulp it down
Like you do with a glass of water,
It’s been 10 months now,
We keep calling out,
Hello!!!!!
Is anybody there!!!


Children walk about,
On legs the size of broomsticks,
Ribs waiting to burst out
Into the sunlight from their sides,
Malnourished
And looking very sickly,
The elderly look no better either,
Anorexic ,
You might think we are,
If only you knew of our hunger pangs,
Nights spent in tents and open spaces,
Packed together like boxes in shipping containers,
The stench from sewage and decaying rubbish,
Has made us all loose our sense of smell,
How else can you live here?
If you have your sense of smell,
You’d most definitely die for no apparent reason,
Somebody tell me how fresh air smells like,
I haven’t the slightest of it now,
A total blur is fresh air,
It’s been 10 months now,
Hello!!!
Is anybody there!!!


I wish I could paint you a better picture,
A picture of a happier place,
One with children playing in the streets,
Schools open with classrooms teaming with kids,
Mothers and fathers raising families under roofs,
Without air-conditioning or ceiling fans,
But at least a semblance of dignity,
An abundance of food
With everyone having at least enough to eat,
Over two hundred have died from cholera in about a month,
If hybrid cars are no longer figments of our imagination,
Why should we be dying of cholera in the year 2010?
We have eyes,
Yet we cannot afford to cry,
Even that, has become too expensive,
Water sure will go waste should we choose to cry.
The children no longer laugh anymore,
They just might have forgotten how to play anymore,
Childhood has lost all meaning in these parts,
Sullen has become our clear skies,
With the aged praying they do not wake come tomorrow,
Even death seems a better option now,
Bleak has been our past months,
Dire has become our todays,
For tomorrow,
All we do is hope and pray,
Hello!!!
Is anybody there!!!


I do not wish to make you sad,
Neither is it my intention to make you cry,
But I felt this much I should share,
I walked the streets of Haiti last night,
And this is what I saw,
Where did all the humans go?
What happened to our shared humanity?
Someone please remind me,
I no longer know what it means to be human anymore,
The world needs to be human once more,
Hello!!!
Is anybody there!!!