Chorus Read Free Page B

to scoop up
    Toes and clothes
    Papers and arms
    Who will take the time
    To peel
    Flesh off the
    Cracked wood boards
    Separate what was once alive
    From the plastic
    But sometimes in the
    Rubble there is life
    2
    From
    Under the concrete
    A rescue dog hears a heartbeat
    Life
    Barks to alert
    D o g and resc u e r s
    Find
    Warm-blooded person
    Heart still beating
    Pumping blood
    So subtle
    Buried in all that rubble
    Yet this dog
    Hears
    There are no
    Buried secrets
    They
    Know compassion
    As they tread carefully
    Walk o ver and through
    Mo u ntains of
    B r oken
    Unstable
    Rubble
    To find life
    3
    8 days
    Under rubble
    Entombed
    Only able to roll
    A few inches
    Wiggle your toes
    Only able to pray
    Psalms blocks out the panic thoughts
    And claustrophobia
    As earth shattering
    Aftershocks
    Threaten, threaten
    To rain death on you
    But the rumbles are the
    Machines
    Chomping through
    Concrete
    Wires
    Broken glass
    They find you
    Under 10 stories of concrete
    You were at work when
    The earthquake hit
    Your husband gives you a bit of water
    Poured through a small hole
    You see light for the first time in over a week
    That night
    Dusty rescuers
    Pass your stretcher
    Carefully
    Hand to hand
    Over the hills of broken brick
    You are one of the last ones found
    Alive
    Your husband would not give up
    Stupid reporter at the scene
    Shoves a microphone into your face
    Asks you if you knew you would survive
    â€œOf course, why not?!” You say in perfect English
    And then to the amazement of all
    You start to sing!
    An IV in your arm as you carefully
    Get into your car
    Your grateful husband
    Drives you all away so
    You can see for yourself
    What has happened to your island
    After two weeks
    An 85-year-old woman is found
    Under the rubble of a church
    She is frail but alive
    Stained-glass windows not shattered
    And then another miracle
    Under a house
    A skeletal six-year-old boy
    Is found
    He is smiling!
    His face dusty
    He takes it all in
    His arms are open wide
    Everyone at the scene cheers
    He cheers
    He is passed to his crying father
    Who never gave up

19
    in spirit scrapping seafloor merriment
    i arrive wild with banshee reverie
    seeking beyond
    broken securities coveting access to my body
    beyond
    salvaged excrement
    and fingers groping for self in mirrors of me
    i stand in spirit ruling she body
    shipping unseen
    carrying burnt and ashen fears ogling to nest
    wearing shards of smiles shattered yesterday
    so flowers reach
    i arrive standing here
    spitting from bone black bones
    chamber of solar symphonies
    hunting flesh’s grief
    i tell no tales
    i tell knowings of wreckage and gold
    so sing me, sing me
    pursing dawn’s reverie
    in spirit mourning exhumed seepage
    i stand keeping space for dream s undealt release
    and seek beyond
    secluded safety
    where communal sutures are necessity
    when child is a dead field
    none wants to turn nor cultivate
    for fear incapability and that she won’t harvest
    i arrive rooted resilient
    spiriting heart’s burst against rooting timbers’ sway
    where presence barnacles low tides
    surviving to sound of her sea calls
    in response she clings
    a chamber of solar symphonies and bone black bones
    hunting flesh’s grief
    i tell no tales
    i tell knowings of wreckage and gold
    so sing me, sing me tilling dawn’s reverie
    in spirit sucking sweet of bees, i stand predisposition
    breaking decay, drafting nectar from my skin
    and momentum of wind where ancestors keep
    seeking beyond
    padded throats hoping for something without claiming
    what do i call her
    whatever i name
    here, summoning spirit of undoing
    a past pattern mistress reading feelings for belief
    i shine existence with an unbound rag
    and seek beyond
    suicide’s repetitive plight
    hunting flesh’s grief from bone black bones
    a chamber of solar symphonies
    i tell no tales
    i tell knowings of wreckage and gold
    so sing me, sing me bringing dawn’s reverie
    in spirit feeding fury, i arrive hidden
    a