Hubris by Lorraine Riess

Haitian quake orphans were reunited with their parents

after American Missionaries were arrested for taking 33

children on a bus headed to the Dominican Republic for

adoption. The missionaries had no paperwork and the

leader was taken into custody by Haitian officials and

charged with child abduction.

NPR report by Jason Beaubien, March 19, 2010

Hubris

The daffs in the field had just come into bud

When an April hailstorm loomed.

Rather than loose them to the pelting ice

We gathered, we saved these hundreds of blooms.

Gifts of golds and doublet cups

Huddled in tepid water

In every vase on every table

Mantel, sideboard and counter.

We smiled at our valiant efforts

They were safe in the warmth of our rooms

While sleet made its way over garden and green

And winds cut cold till the next afternoon.

As if they’d been missing their parent sun

They paled and wilted within a few days.

The few we’d missed and left out in the storm

Lasted much longer than the one’s we’d saved.

Like children, they danced in the rough spring breeze

Perhaps a bit lonely, their siblings gone.

Blissful and free from our chastened gaze

Next year we plan to leave them alone.

Lorraine Riess

CRP

2/26/16