Tremofobia III: Uncivil War

third of three poems exploring the theme "tremofobia," which in Spanish means an irrational fear of earthquakes

When internal pressures strain

two immovable forces for too long,

the very reality of the land

ruptures with a jolt that can even

sometimes be measured from space.

How simple a word is “earthquake,”

how insufficient to describe the vast

effects and system malfunctions and

secondary impacts like bombs

dropping in pastoral paradises

or innocent unarmed civilians

massacred at your country’s border.

 

There comes a breaking point, when

some faults must fracture now because

if they do not, if the pressure builds even

more, what happens will be a major

catastrophe instead of mere disruption

of the nightly news. It is the difference

between answering the doorbell to find

either the tax man or the executioner

standing on the threshold of a new era.

 

You cannot manufacture resentment

forever; a reading of Rwandan history

can teach you about human faults

that lie far from geologic ones. I fear

what happens when this tectonic plate

dividing my country snaps in two;

but I fear even more what happens

if it does not.

 

Author's Note

third of a series of three poems done as an assignment for poetry club Casa los Altos. Translated from my original in Spanish