10.10.05

for katrina


I watch
the news and listen
to a White man furious
because his home’s basement
in Oakland, NJ
has been hit by flood
and lies in four feet of water

I read the reports and sympathize
with a Black woman in a frenzy
because her elderly mother
in N’Orleans, LA
has not been located
and sleeps nowhere near her daughter

How differently
The water has raged against
Americans.