Of Quakes and Questions

The Shaking
(by R.P.Edwards)

When lives are shaken
Sifted…full
When all connected
Pushed
And pulled
When boundaries, borders
Cease to be
It’s then we learn
The truths…
Of me

It was a desperate time; a frantic, fearful, desperate...time.  The earthquake; the enormous earthquake (so much larger than any had expected), had shaken, not only their modest split level house (still, thankfully, habitable), but indeed, their whole existence.  Maria, a young bride of only twenty one years, gently cradled and rocked her sleeping baby girl (Alatea, three months old) as she anxiously looked out the front window for the return of her husband, Enrique, who had gone out (what seemed an eternity ago) into the unknown…to try and supply their needs.  Suddenly there was a special rapping on the back patio door!  It was Enrique!  A few moments later the two lovers embraced and then the provider brought in the rather large treasure he had retrieved…for his treasures.  Taking the child (who had awakened) from his wife’s arms, the man of the house looked on as Maria surveyed the hard fought haul.  After a half minute she turned and said, “You couldn’t get a fifty inch plasma?”  “Sorry, darling,” said the tired forager, “they were all gone.  But this thirty-two inch HD flat screen will do…for now.” “I suppose you're right,” agreed the mrs., taking the beginning to squirm child. “But I also have this,” he said with a mischievous smile as he quickly removed his red backpack and, placing it on the kitchen table, unzipped and then revealed a high-dollar, Dell laptop.  “Enrique!” squealed Maria.  “It’s just what I wanted!”

Sorry.  I don’t mean to diminish the trouble and tragedy in Chile.  But really, barely after the earth stops wobbling and the looters (certain unrestrained citizens) start going on a shopping spree?  Grocery store, I can see that.  But Plasma TV’s?  Now, granted, it hasn’t happened here (and I pray it never does), but I hope if we are visited by the unthinkable…that our first impulse is not to take…but to give.

That’s what I think.  How about you?  Click comments below…and say.