Natural Disaster
Natural Disaster
By Kristiana Letourneau
Mount Abraham Union High School, Grade 10
For over a week
Your lifeless body lay
Trapped beneath a mountain of rubble
The only remains of what was once
Some kind of store, with a church in the back.
What did this building mean to you?
Perhaps you worked there, at the store
Selling hardware, all kinds of marvelous tools
Providing people with the means
To start, to build a strong foundation for a new life.
Or maybe you were a sinner
Your soul in dire need of saving
You wanted to rush right through that store
Into the church, searching for someone
You needed to pour out the truth
Separate it from all the lies
Needed an ear unknown to you
To tell you everything would be alright.
But perhaps this building was only that:
A building, and you simply sought shelter
As the winds whipped faster around you.
They saw your hand reaching up
From amidst the broken brick
You never made it inside that day.
What a pity, because you were so young
Your wedding band still smooth, unblemished
She paced in the front hall for hours
But you did not return, nor will you now
You promised you’d always be there
Through thick and thin, for better or for worse
But only as long as you both shall live
She wept bitterly, and now she is numb
Gazing blankly out the window
The trees strewn about the yard like forgotten toys.
More than 27 injured, and you alone, lost
Another good thing consumed by evil
Just another storm, natural and inevitable
It could have been anyone, and yet it was you
You whose life we mourn in silent solitude.