Things to do after disaster:

Count cash
Call mother
Smoke cheap cigarettes
Contact FEMA
Stand in line
Drink free coffee
Mingle with refugees
Attend funerals
Eat free food
Contact FEMA
Contact Red Cross
Drive to mother
Visit childhood
Drink home brew beer
Rant
Accept donations
Bake potato bread
Collect memories
Contact FEMA
Write poetry
Write letters
Write notes
Borrow clothes
Bury your lover
Contact FEMA
Get free gloves
Get free masks
Get free shots
Drive to disaster
Sift through rubble
Drag bodies to river
Search for familiar faces
Pray to unknown gods

Lana Maht Wiggins
from her book Notes from Refuge
Plain View Press, 2008

Used with permission of the poet.