Quake (Poetry)

The fall was sudden —
an abrupt snatching away of ground
that had always felt so solid
until then; the plunge a long howl
of anguish that went on and on,
heart-shrinking, shrieking out
the kind of nightmare
I never dreamed I’d hear.

To think it was a stranger whose dark tongue
split us with his mischief,
played a foul, ungentlemanly game
and triumphed with a trick
I didn’t see coming.

The canyon of your absence yawns, its walls
too far apart for any bridge I know
to span across. My engineering’s slow
to grasp the problem even now
the earthquake’s done and rain
damps down dust. Love’s rubble lies
at rest and bruises fade, the day to day
things roll on just the same
where habit drives and determination
follows with the aspirin.