Quake (1985, Mexico City)

we blink

involuntarily

about a thousand times an hour

every day

everywhere

even underneath a collapsed floor

buried in darkness

under a mass of rubble

where life is trapped vibration

and no sound can penetrate,

escape the fast-thickening air

where one such blink

on camera

is evidence enough

for rescue to proceed

And even if in pandemonium

lifelines down,

involuntarily,

her bowels move,

her bladder

releases

and she is caked

with her own foulness;

concrete dust, filth

she will still praise

the body

that saved her

(First published in Orbis, Issue 79, spring 2017.)