Sandra Martyres - Earthquake

The earth rumbled
Buildings by the dozen tumbled
With the hundreds trapped under the debris
Wailing like the proverbial banshee
Pathetic and tragic scenes did emerge
The entire nation experienced the scourge
The screams for help and shrill cries
Desperation writ deep in people's eyes
All the acute suffering and pain
Was driving even the survivors insane.
The questions uppermost in their mind
How much life, would they, in the ruins find?
Would the relief supplies arrive in time?
Would the sniffer-dogs smell or hear the living whine?
How many would be extricated
from the rubble before getting asphyxiated?
And finally when would the tremors cease
To give people time to grieve and their tension ease.

Sandra Martyres

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/earthquake-11/