Aftershocks

Laurie Kuntz

It starts slowly, a rumble
a faint tremble, the light bulb shakes
the windows wrench, crushing glass sounds—

                                                                the reign of distant chimes. 

In the end, all things not secured tumble. 

A woman from Syria 
rarely goes out, and it is not without 
a scrutinizing eye—
the safest corner.
A table away from windows.
She avoids buses, walks everywhere, 
but not in that carefree swagger
barely afforded to the children who walk beside her.

My Cambodian neighbor wakes most nights.
The same dream jolts her—
mistaking the wind for thunder,
thunder for memories, 
the picture of her eldest
falls off the night table.

So many years ago now, 
my sister drove over the Brooklyn Bridge.
She smelled the charred papers
that fell from the sky for days.
Excavations, foundations set,
blueprints blown against an approaching wind—
not a bone was returned to her.

In the end, all things not secured tumble
                                                                 into a reign of distant chimes.

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Laurie Kuntz is an award-winning poet and film producer. She taught creative writing and poetry in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. Many of her poetic themes are a result of her work teaching in Southeast Asian refugee camps for over a decade after the Vietnam War years. She has published one poetry collection (Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press) and two chapbooks (Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press and Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press), as well as an ESL reader (The New Arrival, Books 1 & 2, Prentice Hall Publishers). Her new poetry collection: The Moon Over My Mother’s House is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, Simple Gestures, won the Texas Review Poetry Chapbook Contest. She has produced documentaries on the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Law, and currently is a researcher for the  documentary, Strangers to Peace, about the peace process and reintegration of guerrilla soldiers in Colombia. Her website is: https://lauriekuntz.myportfolio.com/home-1

“Aftershocks,” a memory poem, attempts to lead the reader out of trauma to a place where memories can chime with healing.