Haitian Woman Making Goat Stew in Ranquitte, 1986 (poem)

Goat Stew in Ranquitte

I stood still in the forenoon, my face is turned away from the

       sun.

A woman is cooking goat stew in my long shadow.

The Minister’s house is silent, I’m standing under the edge of the

       extended roof.

My friends and I are building a medical clinic nearby; I’m a bit

       overheated, resting (it is the summer of 1986).

…

I feel like a strange sea creature, drawn back into it (it is July, 2012).

But the spirit inside of me is moving, it says: after twenty-six

       years, it says: ‘It’s time to go back!”

I close my eyes, and think of Haiti, I see a little girl by a woman cooking

       the goat stew…

There are good things in this world, and Haiti is one, and Goat Stew is

       another!

#3379 (7-18-2012)

Recalled from notes and photographs from 1986,

trip to Haiti by the author and 18-other Missionaries