Earthquake on O'ahu

I keep flipping

The light switch on--off

As I enter or exit a room.

I haven’t had electricity for 6 hours,

But I can see just fine.

I do not hear television noise.

I'm listening to the roar of rain

And watching the drops fall into puddles.

It’s like the earth cleared her throat to speak,

And those vibrations halted our lives on this island.

The whole world paused and gave attention.

She said, “Loose the chords bound round your wrists,

Whether your captor be a computer,

A vacuum, or some other machine.

You can enjoy this world without electricity.

Come bathe in my sweet shower to be reborn.

Be still and listen to the sound that silence makes when she has an audience.”

Branches in trees swayed and rattled their leaves

To applaud the majesty of their mother.

.

.

Erin Elizabeth Cloar October 15, 2006

Gravity Cuts In (as Mother Earth Dances to the Music of the Spheres)

She weaves and wobbles,
Dancing to a song
That only she can hear.
Stumbling there
And here,
She spins
While wine sloshes
Back and forth
In her crystal glass.

The music stops.
She pauses to glance at spinning stars
In a sky-dyed, dark, sapphire night,
But she finds herself lost.

Skew-whiffed and dizzied,
She fumbles through darkness—
Feeling everything,
Looking for anything
That could generate a familiar flicker or flash
…of Light.

Just then,
A force grabs hold of her.
Taking on the weight of her world,
He pulls her arm around his shoulder,
And leads her back to her revolution
Around the sun.


Erin Elizabeth Cloar July 26, 2005

Lovers at Starbucks

Love is like
Waiting to take the first sip
Of a Chai Latte.

I want to taste it so badly
So I jump the gun
And press the cup to my lips.

Anticipating a possible burn,
I blow the top and the foam ripples—
Tiny bubbles in a boiling ocean move around slowly.

Overwhelmed by the desire to succumb to the pleasure
Of drinking a hot Chai Latte in December,
I sip.

I felt some pain for a moment,
But it was my fault.
I sipped too quickly.

Should I have
Looked at my watch
So I would have known the perfect timing?

Maybe,
But who can pause and think
When love is first placed in waiting hands?

Even though I know I might get burned,
I sip up life and love and Chai Latte
Whenever and wherever I can.







© Erin Elizabeth CloarDecember 28, 2007