Classic Poem

Roof tiles flew, houses wanted to collapse,
people, stampeding, trampled on each other.
On the cold night all slept outdoors,
no time even to repair makeshift shacks.
Some rode in palanquins with no bearers,
others lay in boats not being poled.
Sleep wanted, sleep was hard to come by,
painful moon at once horrifying and faint.
Daybreak, both small and big acute with hunger, cold,
the frost on the clothes covering them as white as snow.