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Before anyone could say another word,

they all heard,

the quake,

a low, slight blow,

ready to grow,

and put on one hell of a show,

it was a distant rumble at first,

it grew rapidly, the buildings shook,

that’s all it took,

as rubble crumbled down,

crushing the ground,

cracking the streets,

and the earth opening at their feet,

upward went the vast soil,

people screaming during the middle of the turmoil,

the split in the earth traveled forward,

racing toward

the horizon,

as it swallowed everything whole,

people huddled close to waving grass,

waiting for the quake to pass,

hopeless, no doubt, frightened,

echoing cracks as trees snapped,

minds confused and briefly trapped.

How much more could the earth take,

As it battles another earth-quake?