The Rest is Dust

seconds of mumbo jumbo
the planet entrails rumble

windows rattle, ceilings crash,
buildings pick up and tumble

widows and orphans, the decimated streets
the silent minority under the rubble

here and there, a scratch
here and there, a rat

this morning, Gotz wakes up with a sobering thought
he is not the center of the universe

though he's at the epicenter in the 7.5 Richter,
and one of the first to give up the ghost