Enormity

I don’t know
What it means
(I mean
I can
do the count)
For two thousand people
To die
In a brief length of time
Like the candle that
Goes out
(two thousand
brief
candles)
A day or a few days
Seems all of a sudden
And I don’t
Understand

I don’t get it
Apprehend
That is
In that way

There was a landslide
They are gone
How does that happen
They were
Consumed
Their flesh subsumed
I think
And all the parts of them
That mattered
Day by day
Each one
Who breathed
And loved
And worked
And did so with others

Prosaic destruction
Nothing unheard of
I think I am led to believe
This happens
All the time
It’s awful
We try shoring up
Here and there
And think and act prevention
For a while

And not to say
That’s bad
So much better than
Idly waiting
Like the Eloi
For a disaster
From the water
Or the Morlocks
To dissipate
Only a little more
The consciousness
Of play
Sometimes nightly terror
Then play
Again in day

Well
These folk
Real folk
Are gone
Via catastrophe
And however unexpected
It must
Like someone we know
Always a surprise
No matter what
We knew
To find them gone

New seasons
For a while
A time to grieve
And if to dance
A grieving dance
And then
It will have to be
Against the tears
And the
Weighing-down
Anathema
Will be
Must be
A time to plant
A time to build
A time to harvest
Feed
And provide
For all of us
The many who
Must remain
To keep our world
(sorry)
Going

C L Couch


Landslide in Papua New Guinea Killed More than 2,000, Officials Say
SYDNEY – Papua New Guinea's massive landslide three days ago buried more than 2,000 people, the government said on Monday, as treacherous terrain and difficulties transporting aid lowered hopes of finding survivors. The National Disaster Centre gave the new number in a letter to the U.N. released Monday but dated Sunday.

Photo by Dicky Wauyari on Unsplash

(referencing The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, also the character in another story who mentions a brief candle)