You jewel that stole my heart away
I roamed your beaches every day
a gem between the sky and sea
enchanting home you were for me.
Your families stole my heart with warm embrace
those smiles in common beauty with your grace.
Your colors –
they the splendor that you spilled.
To gaze a brighter palette no one will.
I left you once some thirty years ago,
my life forever changed by your tableau.
Then to embrace your shores a month before
Dorian’s flogging –
’til
you
were
no
more.
Abaco.
My Abaco, oh why?
A mound of rubble weeps beneath the sky.
Your people swept to sea in terror dealt
more searing pain perhaps was never felt.
I see you in my mind from way back when.
Abaco,
thank God I knew you then.
Just Sifting 
Wistfulness, longing, sadness–how a love in the heart can turn heavy in times of tragedy. The middle of your poem, the stacked words, could almost be seen as the stages of grief, coming to terms with the destruction.
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Thank you. I dragged the middle out trying to convey the long span of devastating assault that was sustained by that community. Thank you for sharing your interpretation – I hadn’t thought of it in that way, but it certainly works that way, too. Thank you for sharing your impressions with me. It is a difficult thing and still with me, and I didn’t want to it to be forgotten.
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Such sadness is felt and shown in your poem. So much sadness these days.
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Thank you for reading, Joanne. I am usually on the positive side of things, but this is still with me and always will be. It took me most of the month to gather the will to post such a personal loss, but I don’t want it to be forgotten. Thank you for bearing it with me.
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It is so important to remember. Memory helps us deal with today. Because we get through things and though pain lingers, memory will soften it.
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Thanks, Suzanne.
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