Wen Chuan 2008, 5,12
A deep mysterious sound
No one recognised YOU
‘Til YOUR closing steps destroyed the town
A darkness all around
A mother cried
for her only son.
The school rubble
Squeezed heart and lung
Falling parachutes
Disappeared in mountain avalanche
Black forest and storm
Swallowed a soldier who was still young
Desperate and shaking
We couldn’t bear YOUR anger
Surviving brothers kneeled down
Crying and digging for the still-breathing kin
A sleeping baby under the ruins was found
Its delicate skin caked with mud and dust
Is this YOUR mercy?
Or YOUR fleeting wonder?
