San Mateo, October 1989

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San Mateo, October 1989*

Years later
I remember the day:
sunshine in the windows,
a humming bird hovering,
peeking in,
quiet.

The train approaches
from the distance
rumbling, building, shaking,
passing underneath--
cars in the parking lot
ride wave after wave
across the asphalt,
my desk chair rolls
on the carpet pad
as if on the deck of a ship
pitched in a storm
back and forth.
Across the way,
aluminum lamp posts
on a highway bridge
whip as hickory sticks--
the world moves in unintended ways.

I hold on to the desk and credenza,
riding the bull beneath me,
raging on,
wanting to be
at an end,
to have this pass,
to be on the other side
of terror,
with the distance of years,
the morning
after the dream
returns.

13 Mar 04
Day of the Loma Prieta, CA earthquake, October 17, 1989

© Copyright 2004, E. Granger-Happ, All Rights Reserved.

Contents - Lent, 2004