Karen Petersen (New York City)

It was a holiday time, a time for
happiness and clementines,
for idling in the warming sun,
and walking slowly on to market.
Then far out at sea the wave began
nurtured by the rumbling Earth far below,
and when it came, spanning continents,
nothing could resist, no one could resist
and all were carried forward into Eternity.

As fast as Time all things were equal
and in this great jumble of sea water
mixed the things of the Earth with the things of Man,
and all despaired.
Today the sea is silent, the earth is silent:
the only sound the wind flicking the white flags of mourning.
Now the rising sun guards the many creased shrouds,
large and small, lying just beyond the water’s reach
the calm water, blue in the new light.