Aftershocks

AFTERSHOCKS 761127/OTT

By JC STREET © 2004 all rights reserved

I handled the earthquake well but
the aftershocks
rive my heart with hideous shudders, it

was too far from civilization to be felt, though
Richter
would have called it
a large one

I never got
back to civilization so
it caught me in its epicenter

After the rubble I made a new start but
the aftershocks
changed all that, mornings

just when I’m feeling
stronger a tremor
buckles the knees, I

took down your picture, it
had been an icon I worshipped . . . no
not worshipped
but,it was something nice

I took it down; rebuilt
the walls with bookshelves, wisdom
from other minds, paintings
all beauty and still, evenings too

I wandered by the sea
composing poems, though
the aftershocks
washed them away on the tide

I softened my heart, felt
my body all collapse
inside;

learned to live again, but
the aftershocks . . .

It was
too fragile a peace and a
sudden shookness
caught it
before the mortar took

I was
close to Grace, it
had been a long climb (crime), will,
courage, humility . . . the stones I thought
would salve, but

the aftershocks

those faint
flutterings of rock heart, and
earth moving

plummet of feet in a tipsy

sense loss. . .
body tumbling down a well, wind
water and wild as
muscle here buckled, this

earthquake was a fulsome thing

full-bellied and to be grasped, sensate,
tangible
lovely in its rage, the

aftershocks are the enigma, so

feeble in their spentforce, yet
so unpredictable

Nights when the aftershocks come, I
lie awake, nights
when they don’t
I wait

--30-- November 27, 1977, Ottawa, Ontario