After you by Agha Shahid Ali

We are left mute and so much is left unnamed after you— No one is left in this world to be blamed after you. Someone has disappeared after christening Bertha— Shahid, will a hurricane ever be named after you? Now from Miami to Boston Bertha is breaking her bones— I find her in the parking lot. She says, “I’m blamed after you.” The Deluge would happen—it was claimed—after you But the world did go on, unashamed, after you ANDREW BERTHA CHARLES DAVID ELLA FLOYD GEORGE but S comes so late in the alphabet that although SHAHID DEVASTATES FLORIDA is your dream headline, no hurricane will ever be named after you

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