Poetry – If You’re Waiting for the Future by Dennis Formento

For many Katrina warriors, words provided a much needed escape and post-storm therapy. Acclaimed poet Dennis Formento presents a literary take on the aftermath and recovery.

If You’re Waiting for the Future
“art melts the hard lines of politics “
(Els de Groen)

There are two ways in which delaying
brings the greatest pleasure: paying the bill
and dying. The bill has arrived—

Through the windows of your eyes, you can see
one house touches another, one block touches
the next, a street runs parallel to a street
and the run-off still flows into the sea.
Recovery
is a loaded word, alcohol, misery—
How many acres recovered from the sea?
Addicts recover, lovers recover after slipping the clothes
off each other’s bodies

Too many alphabets, too
many words, too many letters
in this world for me.
I can’t hold them long enough
to finger them out
too many meanings to relate.
Somebody will get back
to you, payment
is never swift,
satisfaction is the final disappointment

If recovery is only “back to normal”
then we have missed an opportunity
If we still tread
poor people like dirt
then we have not changed our eyes

What would you see
if the eye were a different
cavity?

All this began with that recovery
from the sea, reclaimed land
never ours to begin