Dianne Thomas

Intensities of IV or Less

Creaking walls
a rattle of glass
the house shaking
as if a large truck 
were driving past

The earth shifts and we 
can feel its movements
hundreds of miles away
far above the settling layers
and beyond the epicenter

At this safe distance 
we find only traces of the fury
a rolling pebble
a rattling tree branch
a crackling in the telephone line

How close do we need to be
and what needs to fall on our heads
before we can begin to understand
that no one is safe on the surface
when subterranean factions try to settle