Adventures in Literary Esoterica

Edging the San Andreas

These tectonic plates have been together
for three billion years,
married to a fault.

Small grievances accumulate in the sediment—
the way she always pushes,
how he never gives an inch.
The pressure builds.

Occasional foreplay alleviates the tension,
but does little to resolve the underlying friction.
The stresses of two great, unyielding forces
passions inflamed and bubbling over.

The neighbors feign haughty obliviousness,
despite knowing it's a matter of when rather than if
their neighborhood once again becomes ground zero
for a ground-shaking, window-rattling escapade

Tomorrow there will be apologies to California,
and flowers sent to the Pacific coastline.
But right now, all that matters in this moment
is the exquisite agony of the build-up to the climax.

And when it eventually comes,
even the earthquake will be surprised
by the force of its own release.

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Line Count: 22 lines

Form: Free Verse

Prompt: The thing an earthquake thinks about before it happens.

Written for: "PromptMaster !"