There wasn’t much more to take,

the ground shimmied and the building moved,

everyone cried earthquake!

Then another tremor hit,

it was more pronounced,

as the crowd expected the earth to split,

then a stillness filled the air,

the rushing crowd expected more,

as the office elevators remained on the ground floor,

crowds bolted out of buildings

trying to make their escape,

expecting an apocalyptic landscape

of shattered housings and burning cars,

but they found no sudden impact,

the streets were intact,

nothing was moved, nothing was turned over,

only smoke billowed from a bull-dozer

with a spider arm,

its jack hammer pulverizing the asphalt,

there was no harm,

huge steel pipes lay nearby,

awaiting installation,

false alarm.