Faults

“Faults are cracks in the earth's crust along which there is movement. These can be massive (the boundaries between the tectonic plates themselves) or very small. If tension builds up along a fault and then is suddenly released, the result is an earthquake.” —National Park Service at nps.gov

we cracked open her       tectonic chest

expected the soft yolk       of congealed blood but instead

found a sticky       residue of steaming tar

I tried         to brace myself against stormy weather 

shutter in but it came from deep underground and shattered

everything     there should have been a warning 

you’d have thought yet we still attempted the mend

found that steel         sutures wouldn’t stay and the 

wound bled and bled       until ravens fled from its gaping mouth

shifting like a               darkening bruise against an open-skinned sky—

ask and I’ll tell you—        I’d rather

know the unknown               than speak of inevitability 

I could have come prepared          brought a pie 

but I was unbound on this         try 

knowing sadness             the way crows mourn their murders

and then suddenly       take flight one by one into

the screaming night    leaving me to wait 

for the distant cries

           of a drowning sea—

###