APRÈS SANDY

Before

After

I finally went down through the caves to the seashore – my first time since the storm. It took a good week for the water level to go down and safe passage assured. I remember feeling the rumbling in my bungalow as the stormed raged and thinking it was more than just waves pounding the shore. When I reached the bottom of the cave I could see why: a giant man-made column constructed years ago to support the natural mouth of the cave had been dislodged and thrown to the waters edge. This had also opened a gap between two other boulders that seemed poised to collapse – bringing with them another wall of rock. On closer inspection, it appears that the fisted arms of Sandy had transformed the entire rock frontage of our ten metre high cove. Water was now dripping from the cave’s ceiling where it never dripped before and I was told that the cave’s safety was now in question. It was also pointed out to me that the concrete bridge between two boulders at the water’s edge, our little pier from which we dive and swim, was destroyed as well – lifted and thrown against another formation. Now for my contemplative moment every morning before breakfast, on the cliff overlooking the sea – I think of the turbulence under my feet – the constant movement of natural forces and the unpredictibility of life and rocks – I think of the power of Sandy and how the coastline of Haiti is in constant flux. I pause further and yearn for the soft touch of a woman.