Aftershock – Wenchuan Earthquake 2008

I wrote these poems for the monthly province-wide magazine and weekly newspaper where I am Chief Editor and Lead Writer. Please give generously to the people of the region. You Lived in Innocence From your first breath to your last You lived in innocence Each of your days were a blessing The small prints you left in eternity’s dust are jewels Sparkling, wondrous treasures You lived in innocence Your final heartbeats Your last breaths Will be all around us each moment we live But we must release the grim images of your final moments The dismal weight of those petrifying instants is too much to bear We who live Hear your innocent laughter in the birds’ song Catch your breath in the gentle evening breeze The softness of your lovely hair The sweet touch of your gentle hands Touch us from the shadows of the unknowable Your mothers and fathers are our sisters and brothers now In your death you have become the sons and daughter of us all We who live Remember You lived in innocence Each of your days (Second Poem) 2:28 It is now 2:28 My heart aches in sympathetic vibration Thoughts crumble beneath the weight of the moment Over the distant horizon A mother weeps, softly to herself As she folds her lost daughter’s dresses A father stares into the gray distance Desperate for a moment of clarity A couple hold hands in a dark tent Looking at their final family photo And smile at their son’s crooked grin A teacher places flowers at her shattered classroom door It is 2:28 From Hangzhou …
Video Rating: 5 / 5