Tents

Thomas Quitzau

May 30, 2021

The Good Friday earthquake of 1964,

registering 9.0 on the Richter Scale,

destroyed Anchorage, Alaska.

Rocky Mountain high altitude sickness

Fogs my memory, difficult to breathe

Cross country trek seeking greater freedom

Driven by the Great Earthquake1 my parents

Sped to Denver, dropped me off there alone

Time to turn less blue in oxygen tents

People look blurry through crinkly tents

White walls back blue feelings with this sickness

Dad waiting out of view helpless alone

So important to remember to breathe

Hospital rules forbade any parents

Nineteen sixty-four fighting for freedom

Moving toward the Gulf’s oil and freedom

Good Friday shook Anchorage most intense

Events change families’ plans and parents

Stay up late, deal with diapers and sickness

Great lands mired in civil rights strain to breathe

Marches let all know no one is alone

Immigrants walk great distances alone

Seeking the same care, good jobs, and freedom

Crammed in trucks, trafficked, difficult to breathe

Separated, exploited live contents

Increased risk of rape, death, loss, and sickness

Only to wait in cages for parents

Wrapped in foil, inside tents, without parents

Children left for reasons unknown alone

Great long borders, broken system’s sickness

Cities’ allure mesmerizing freedom

Beckoning migrant workers sans pretense

Many toilers, economies’ lives breathe

Dad appears next morning (now I can breathe)

Bearing a gift (you’ve got to love parents)

Nothing allowed except O2 in tents

Yellow Tonka truck appears, Dad alone,

Mom with the others not feeling freedom

Others thinking something to this sickness

Camping in tents in parks where we can breathe

Free from sickness, side-by-side with parents

Don’t leave us alone, God, give us Freedom!

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.