20150719 (Cascadian fault)

Everything west of Interstate 5 it is said

Will someday soon slide to the sea

I’ve ridden on Interstate 5

Everything west is a big chunk of change

Do they include the south-flowing side

In the parts to go or will it stop at the edge

And the south lanes mark the new beach

I like Seattle even Boeing and Starbucks

But most I like Olympia where my son

My daughter-in-law and three darling 

Granddaughters have made their home

His medical practice and it’s really quite 

A lovely place with tall green trees

Enough rain and gloom to keep forests growing

Damn Juan de Fuca oceanic plate

And the Cascade subduction zone

They've got me more worried now than 

I’ve been in a long long time

They say it might not happen until 2600

Or tomorrow when the sudden advance

Of one tectonic plate over another

Results in a 9.0+ Richter earthquake

Liquefaction of the soil 

Bodies hurled upward if they’re outside

Gas lines snapping exploding

Electric lines down cars being swallowed

Into the flowing ground whole buildings

And I’m not supposed to worry

The tsunami generated will mop up

Into the mud what hasn’t been toppled

Shattered or split by the earthquake

Oh there’s been some discussion

Did Ms Kathryn Schulz exaggerate

In her article since everyone’s known

For years this big one’s overdue

And unlike Japan where there’s

Earthquakes every week the states

Of Washington Oregon haven’t 

Tightened much up realistically 

How does one tighten

An entire coastline against this disaster 

Tie cables from every building

To much higher ground

Send your kids to school with

Self-inflating life jackets 

How is that going to protect them

As the waves roll them over like toys

On its inland rush under the colloidal

Suspension of slamming cars boulders

Telephone poles concrete block buildings

Suddenly unfounded by tons of muck

Rushing ashore grinding everything

In its way what comfort have we that

It might not occur for years

But it is going to occur someday

Not like nuclear war which 

Might not happen at all though

The danger is there 

Everybody agrees this will happen

How much less horrible will it be

Drowning destroying my great

Granddaughters than the 

Granddaughters whom I will hold

Onto so much more dearly 

When I see them soon

c. J.S.Manista, 2015