Earthquake

How long is an earthquake? Is it ten – twenty - sixty seconds? When the earth beneath your feet is dancing the dance of death, how long are ten – twenty – sixty seconds?
Is each second a thousand seconds, does time stand still, can you hear the infernal roar, or is it in a flash of icy silence that earth’s quaking viscera twists your brittling back bone?
At that unforeseen, unpredicted, unsuspected moment, when the fiendish fury strikes, are you eating – sleeping – making love? Meditating? Praying to the Lord?
Earth shakes, howls, pauses, ---- its over---- you think ---------- And then before you know it, the fury strikes again, tripled the second time around.
Walls came crushing down, trapped, wounded, breathing dust beneath the rubble you wait, in hope, in fear, ---- you hear distant shouts--- screams
And the agony of a loved-one dying beside your feet.