10 Seconds' Notice - Aug 12 2021

 

10 Seconds' Notice

Aug 12 2021

It depends on how much time.

If you could smell the fire

but not see any flames.

If the gargantuan wave

was mere minutes away

in the race for higher ground.

Or if an earthquake warning

gave you 10 seconds grace

what would you clutch to your heart?

They say a sturdy table

the frame of a door.

But when the ground moves beneath your feet

and foundations crumble,

then for the rest of your days

you know nothing is certain

you can never be safe.

Photographs, diaries, keepsakes,

perhaps cold hard cash.

Or whatever you could grab

in those few numb moments

of paralyzed thought.

And afterward, would you wonder

if you'd have been better off

with no warning at all?

Ignorance is bliss, they say

so why meet your fate in fear?

I am closer to the end

than my beginning,

and the years that remain

diminish quicker and quicker.

But who says

it won't come in a flash

in the prime of life;

like lightning, out of a clear blue sky,

over the horizon

before you hear the sound.

So I contemplate what I would take

if taking is even an option.

Not an object, of course,

that would be impossible.

But some quality, perhaps

that would leave an afterlife

well after I'm gone.

So not taken at all

but left and passed on.

That might seem small

in the day-to-day bustle

the urgent now;

but would give meaning to life

make it all have been worthwhile.

I glimpsed this headline (see below) as I scrolled through today's articles on the New Yorker web site. Didn't even stop to read it. These few words were enough to set me off.

We don't have earthquakes here (he wrote, hoping not to spook our good fortune!); so while the question was academic, I did immediately think of the telling time-honoured question “What would you take in the fire?” This is a potentially profound question. It speaks to our priorities; to what we truly value in life. And almost always, it's never an expensive object, money, or fancy job title. I suspect it's most often something with deep sentimental value, something that would hardly be top of mind in the hustle and bustle of daily life.

I had no idea where this poem would go. As usual, I began by just riffing on a theme and playing with language. That it went to a somewhat dark place is not surprising, considering my state of mind these days. But after all, at whatever age we all know that end of life is approaching: we all have warning, it's just that the interval between now and then gets shorter and shorter – and the end, far less hypothetical!

I never do answer the question. Perhaps the reader will.

There’s an Earthquake Coming!

Can ten seconds’ notice really make a difference?