earthquake scenes 1999
1. Earthquaking
The rock judgment
subduction
liquifies soul of planet,
improvising
arrangement of landscape,
improving
visual field by introducing
SPACE
where once had been lives
Spring must follow a fall,
but without a rainbow
can we rebuild
in haste?
We are overtaken
by earth desire
for
evolution
–
2. Dead ends
Bones shattered—
corpse of a young woman
twisted beneath
ceiling &
bed,
body covered
by gray concrete dust;
scores of urban
dead ends
follow
–
3. No voices
No
computers no
running water no
electricity no
functioning phones no
blankets no
authorities no
nothing no
food no
morgue room no
homes no
electricity no
ground no
yesterday, many
people screamed from inside &
today we hear no
voices
–
4. Psychology of Urban Design
trapped under dead
end blocks,
urban
concrete, gray pulverized dust
piles electricity
under the rubble, bodies
amputated
between
the ceiling &
the bed
–
5. In haste
We’re digging into
the concrete with our hands
where the sirens:
ambulance
women
babies
bulldozers
televisions
helicopters
priests
automobiles
cops
refineries
presidents
newspapers
plummet-
ed to the ground
in less than a minute—
separated floors look like
slices of bread
slapped together in haste
–
6. From the void
the hole was larger now.
Thousands of people believed
buried from inside,
row upon row,
slabs of nothing
wide-eyed
from the void
–
7. A new ceiling
Bones slide
carrying them along;
neighborhoods
were downed,
amputated,
missing—
blocked
by power lines,
rubble,
naval officers,
electricity,
the dead,
television,
concrete
her bedroom collapsed
a very long time;
there was this deep & long shudder
the ceiling became the ground,
the ground,
the ceiling
–
8. Balconies are vision structures
the false move
surrounds the day;
corpses rage out of control;
the police
eating watermelon
bells of orange sound
billowed hundreds
of feet in a thick smoke;
sirens collapse
on themselves
the cries of babies dig
into the concrete;
the flattened,
desperate buildings
walking into the water,
arms &
legs
uplifting
FLAME
–
9. Among the debris
Judgment long;
the I dead—
neighborhoods missing
huge like foam, and over—
food, people, rubble
survived, remain trapped
with concrete closed;
aftershocks of surrounding
dead powerlines
debris
slow space mistake
–
10. Aftershocks
Can you dispose of corpses
with a prayer,
with a shovel, with a book,
a bucket of lime and
a fire?
Thousands
of bodies surface
daily, commanding
urgent
attention
the aroma of human
rises in a thick mist,
like the morning
–
A multi-media artist living near Washington, DC, Jeff Bagato produces poetry and prose as well as electronic music and glitch video. Some of his poetry and visuals have recently appeared in Empty Mirror, Otoliths, Brave New Word, Angry Old Man, and Midnight Lane Boutique. Some short fiction has appeared in Gobbet, Danse Macabre, and The Colored Lens. He has published nineteen books, all available through the usual online markets, including Savage Magic (poetry) and The Toothpick Fairy (fiction). A blog about his writing and publishing efforts can be found at http://jeffbagato.com.
