IN THE SILENCE

In the silence
during a noon’s sense of confidence,
minds dwell upon business, pleasures and things.

Suddenly, the planet vomits its traumatizing tremors,
hearts race as knees knock in trepidation,
streaks of fear’s lightning burn across the chest.

That calm and quiet at the outside café
where lunch was being savored
becomes a seat to watch the horror of nature’s holocaust.

Disbelief rips away the peace
when the picturesque portrait
turns into hell’s landscape.

Walls collapse from hearing
the piercing sound of window’s shattering,
shouts of terror drill the ears,
screeching brakes and car horns
are followed by the crushing clamor of cars colliding.

Panic seizes the muscles
before a child’s screams, “mother,”
streets become a ruinous wasteland of concrete rubble,
dust clogs the nostrils,
and the ground continues to shake in volatile waves
as if rocked by the hand of God.

Just when the tragedy of quivers
seems to last forever,
crippling the brain and paralyzing any tranquility,
it all stops as swiftly as it began.

In the aftermath of raped security,
wandering the devastation in stunned steps,
smoke rises from the mounds of bricks
where buildings once stood,
there comes the song of suffering,
sirens, sobs and the begging pleas of lives
who discovered bodies of their family
among the solemn mortared remnants of civilization.