On Trust and Tsunamis

(Published in Lucidity Journal of Verse, Winter 2005)

I was born
with the bone of fairness
stuck too deeply into my soul;
always trusted
that despite the holocaust legacy
of my birth and all wars hence,
there existed a dependable,
if not perfect,
cosmic justice

and that good but grieving gods
sat helpless
as dismayed as I
wringing their various
multi-denominational beards
in desperate regret
of the humanity
they’d created

but then the Earth shook
water roared, retreated
left the dead strewn like rags
on the beaches
of Asiatic eternity

So now is the time
to question my comprehension
of the workings
of supreme beings
whatever their names
in whichever language
mourners call to them

It seems they are no better
than humans
who cannot control
the urge to destroy
forever and ever again