In a high rise apartment building,
with coveted coastal city views
and luxury amenities
occupied by the
moneyed few...
A tremor is felt -
as if the earth's core yawned and stirred -
and to erase all doubt,
a shudder is heard...
a shudder that rumbles
to a rattle
and then rings
car alarms in every street below
in a chorus sickening -
a rattle and its rocking
sinks all occupants to knees
as sculptures shatter, large mirrors smash,
dogs whimper
and relieve
themselves upon
the marble floors
and the building
sways so hard it awes,
parents stutter for
daughters, sons -
women slip from reach of their husbands.
Floor to ceiling windows show,
the city that these people know,
with all the charm their life entails
crumbles in odd sections
for miles and miles of scale -
and when it stops
a dream-like haze of pastel dust
hangs over people
and all the places lost.
Copyright Yafeu-Khamisi Rodway-Brown
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