Earthquakes

The earth is trembling.
There are earthquakes everywhere
Or so it seems.

The fundamentalists say it is a punishment
For the "sins" of men.
The ecologists say it is because if the El Niño effect and Global warming
Caused by the carelessness of men -another way of saying the "sins" of men.

But I am remembering a wise Hawaiian song
That speaks about the white men
Who occupy the islands
And how they tremble,
When sweet Pe'le' (the goddess of the volcano), lets it flow.

Yes, the earth is moving
It is a living breathing organism.
Lava flows in her veins
Like anger in the veins of unenlightened men.

Lava, earth quakes, floods,
Creates lakes and rivers, new atolls and canyons.
We are so heavily invested in the cities we've created
On the shores of mighty oceans,
That we forget we've built our homes
On a living, shifting surface.

We tremble when the walls of our houses shake,
Fearing for the loss of our investment, our lives.

saying all this,
I know too well, that if upon my return,
I'll find that anything happened to my
newly installed Poliform kitchen,
I will be very, very sad.