Tsunami Poem by Linda Hepner

Upon the beach I found a broken heart,
The wave had washed it up from far away,
Six thousand miles to be exact the start,
The merest tremor causing once a stray

Stirring of the waters, strange unease...
The fish flee, omens of foreboding tides,
Escaping danger like a new disease,
Whilst rooted rippling seaweed slips and slides

And there amongst the tendrils swims a girl
Tending her coral gardens and her love:
Suddenly shivers when she feels a swirl
And sees the surface turbulence above.

The wave grows stronger and she tries awhile
To reach her little boat but it has gone,
Swept by the ocean to some distant isle,
Where sirens sing and place their booty on

A high rock which they worship and adore
Oblivious to drowning cries and tears
Swallowed and battered on the ocean floor
Where fissures open, fiery lava sears

Consuming all her self in mute despair,
Except her heart which carried by the storm
Cracked by the jagged rocks which cut and tear
It reached the beach quite broken but still warm.

Upon the beach I found a broken heart,
The wave had washed it up from far away,
Six thousand miles, as they think the start,
A great tsunami, so the poets say.

Feb 2005