Every time a big truck drives by
or a car door in the distance slams too loud
I wonder if it’s the sound of one coming.
I’ve been out here a year and
the first took the longest to hit.
Not long after, a couple came
within a week of each other.
When the shaking stops, we all
walk out of our offices, eager to check
on each other, and share our nervous excitement.
I rather enjoy it, I have to admit.
When I mistake a heavy coworker plodding
for the first moments of a tremor,
I feel let down when the ground stays still.
I long for a good quake, but all I get is phone calls
it’ll be longer than we thought before my fiancée joins me here
my teenage brother signed up to be a US Marine
my close friend’s cancer is back; he has less than a year to live.
I would rather have a slipped fault,
I’m not that concerned about safety.
I don’t know a thing about survival.