Lise Latreille, Breakwater (photograph)
Do not come here
asking why your crops are taken by the waters
why the oyster beds are wind-wracked & scattered.
Go ask your robed men who teach the split-world after
who read by rote that thin-skinned book of mercy & ruin
why this country is unseamed & stripped.
What else is this but vengeance. As the gods
would will it. As in the last hour.
You should give thanks for the brutal water the days of sun without cease
the weather that grants the hardship that shapes your days.
You ask small questions & for this you will not be forgiven.