This Terrible Day

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I wrote this poem in response to what came to be known as the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, a tragedy that claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives. This poem mourns the forgotten and pleads for their remembrance through prayer. It is based on the Catholic understanding that it is right and good to pray for the dead.

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I am the first to have drowned, this terrible day.
You don’t know me
Nobody does
I lost everything this terrible day, including my life
And yet, there is only one thing I need

The sea knew no limits, this terrible day
It invaded the land
And kept coming and coming
Wave after wave, overwhelming
Laying waste and wrenching and wrecking
I lost everything this terrible day, including my life
And yet, there is only one thing I need

I saw my mother drown, I saw my father drown
They were old and infirm, and the sea didn’t care
I saw my two young children drown, together they went
They were young and feeble, and the sea didn’t care
I looked into my wife’s eyes as life left them
She was pregnant and weak, and the sea didn’t care
There was nothing I could do. Nothing.
Why do you not believe me?

I lost my whole family this terrible day
Brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents
Everyone.
I lost all my friends and neighbours, and enemies, too, this terrible day.
Everyone.
All who knew me are gone.
Everyone.

I am now not remembered with longing
And my name cannot be brought lovingly to anyone’s mind
There is no more ‘in memory of me’
I am an all-alone anonymous soul yearning for Heaven
So, please, please pray for me
Release my bond
Acquit me from my Purgatory
You are my last hope
And your prayers are the keys to my kingdom come

I am the first to have drowned, this terrible day.

You don’t know me
Nobody does
And there is only one thing I need.