you were a perfect ten on the richter scale
there were no warnings about
the destruction you'd cause
no one was ever ready for you,
especially me.

loving you was like
kissing along the san andreas fault line
and praying i don't strike a nerve
loving you was like pretending
the splitting earth was only opening itself up to me
and not trying to bury me.

notice how the world shutters when it thinks of you
notice how there's cracks in everything you touched
notice how there's still parts of me buried beneath the rubble

somebody told me i needed to assess the damage
and all i could think about
was all those shattered picture frames.

the aftershock hits hardest in the places
that remind me of you

i still believe there's something beautiful about nature,
just not human nature -
just not your nature.