1619 and 1619 Echo are twin poems.

The echo is the wailing of the mother vowing to stay alive until the daughter is back.

I ran around for days,
looking for you between the rays.
Nowhere to find you. Did you elope?
Nine days later the village lost hope
except for me, your poor mother,
who won’t believe you are gone forever.
Talking drums declare you captive.
Never our warriors are more active.
Running after the sun the mission,
I follow them crawling to exhaustion,
then wake up to the thump of a drum—
water stole the fruit of my womb.

I hear sea water flows to the sky;
do not fear it, you will not die.
No burial for me until you are back.
I will return a ghost in the dark,
unable to speak but recording every scene,
the destruction visited upon us obscene.
Your homeland has turned to wasteland.
I dare not cross the river until I understand.

It will be a long time before I visit your dreams.