Earthquake

I should like to catch an earthquake
Alone
Alone
Alone
In the plain view of a forest
Hugging the earth to my chest
Shuddering with it
With every straw of grass, every leaf, every pebble

I can imagine
Dirt between my fingers
Face turned towards the sky
And the rocking of my mother
Singing me to sleep

I should like to know myself alone with the earthquake
Alone
Alone
Alone
Just me and the maker
With beauty and sun
The insides revealing
And I would know true beauty and fear

And those seconds would be years
Of happiness
And I would live to be a thousand
Through my mother’s trials
The world crumbling to my feet

I should like to be a thousand
Alone
Alone
Alone
All wrinkles and wisdom
All grass and clay and water
And I would see another face of my mother
My mother, my mother, the earth

And through her quivering and pain
I’d beg forgiveness and hug her into me
As one, as two, as all the world
And I would cry, Endurance!
We are only young once

I should like to stop that earthquake
With you
With you
With you
Caress her olden skin
Her limbs, her chest
And beg forgiveness
For we are young
Only once