To start living,
you have to shake off the dust of yesterday
and refuse to let it define you.
We are not our failures, we are not our mistakes.
We are not our incomplete sentences or lost words.
We are our future,
shining bright.

-Rhia Clay

On the fifth of April 2024, about 10: 23 a.m., we all felt a shake
It wasn't the midnight train; it wasn't a jack hammer
It wasn't children hopping; it wasn't the roaring of a tiger
It wasn't a 747 emergency landing; it was an earthquake
It was God smiling at us to see how we would have reacted
People had panicked miserably; it was the talk of the town
Imagine how we would behave on the eventual day of the frown
We'd probably be crying, grimacing and feeling deserted
No, that wasn't a plane
No, that wasn't a train
No, that wasn't the lake
Yes, that was a 4.8 Earthquake
In the Northeast
Disturbing our peace
Everybody is now scared, talking about it
Everybody is now stressed, having a fit.

Copyright © April 2024, Hébert Logerie, all rights reserved.
Hébert Logerie is the author of several collections of poems.

When she felt
she felt strongly
those emotions
and feelings
tightly wound
cut the wrong cord
and her whole world
will shake

it's a vibration in the air
that leaves tingles in the back of my throat
as my hairs stand on end
it's the electric currents in my veins
the magnetic pull of all that i touch
which draws me in
and yet
it's like a shiver down my spine
a hot mist through my nostrils
with a scent and stench
as drool and blood dribbles onto the floor
splattering
from the corners of my lips
when i wheeze and cough
and it comes in waves
that shake my knees,
my hands
and the flesh that binds me whole

a craving.