Wave of Anguish

the ocean rose
and scoured the land
as if the hand of God
itself

flung bodies
into boughs of trees,
carelessly like toys
strewn about a shelf

tore houses, families, lives
apart,
battered bits and pieces
ripped out of context

spun topsy turvy
into a new reality,
cars in hotel lobbies
cadavers in fish freezers
and lifeless souls
washed up on to the shore

like so much flotsam and jetsam
to be gathered like driftwood
grey and gnarled
and burned upon the pyre of pain