sub-merged

weeks before the tsunami coiled around japan’s lungs,

the skies in dubai changed. february always seduced

fat clouds in the middle-eastern spring; the kind that

reminded you of cotton candy and glazed croissants.

but that year, the clouds were galloping. virgin gusts

of godly breath, they resembled snow angels torn to

shreds. it was enough beauty to bring a grown man

to his pagan knees. but i? i knew. i knew something

was horribly wrong, that something was going to

change forever.

silence

then—

anarchy. the kind that kept children shivering for

weeks under thickets of decomposing sakura. the

kind that birthed and buried mangled human limbs

in baptist compost pits. the kind that noah renounced

hundred years of his life to build an ark for.

the kind that spawned slick turmoil in its wake,

and changed the skies of a land millions of

miles away.