Problems with Hurricanes (by Victor Hernandez Cruz)
Problems with Hurricanes (by Victor Hernandez Cruz)
Original Text
Victor Hernandez Cruz, Maraca: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2000 (Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2001).
This
poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2002 International Shortlist).
1A campesino looked at the air
2And told me:
3With hurricanes it’s not the wind
4or the noise or the water.
5I’ll tell you he said:
6it’s the mangoes, avocados
7Green plantains and bananas
8flying into town like projectiles.
9How would your family
10feel if they had to tell
11The generations that you
12got killed by a flying
13Banana.
14Death by drowning has honor
15If the wind picked you up
16and slammed you
17Against a mountain boulder
18This would not carry shame
19But
20to suffer a mango smashing
21Your skull
22or a plantain hitting your
23Temple at 70 miles per hour
24is the ultimate disgrace.
25The campesino takes off his hat--
26As a sign of respect
27toward the fury of the wind
28And says:
29Don’t worry about the noise
30Don’t worry about the water
31Don’t worry about the wind--
32If you are going out
33beware of mangoes
34And all such beautiful
35sweet things.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011