Silence after the storm

a woman pleading
in waist high river
of disease
and illness
begging for food
and clean water
has no time
to ask politely
to beg politely
with structured words:
"we need the world
to help us"
did she sob them
as they were translated
edited, politically inserted
did she sob them
with outstretched arms
clinging to survive
her hellish world

silence after the storm