They were still pulling victims out alive, 278 hours after the 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey & Syria on February 6. It brings back memories of Mexico City, 1985, where we spent five days searching with our dogs for survivors as part of the U.S. Team – volunteer dogs and handlers, and high tech teams from Bureau of Mines.
Remedies
The news is earthquake in Turkey.
Remember your cousin’s stories, how he felt
so much at home in Turkey – his year of adventuring
the middle-sea on his motorsailer, Panakeia
named for the Greek goddess of universal remedy.
Any earthquake reminds me of stories
collapsing one on another, Mexico City, a garment
factory with 75 women at sewing machines
on every floor, its owner demanding the wreckage
be bulldozed no matter if any of them
were still alive.
Our dogs knew better,
editing the story with keen-sniffing noses –
noses that nudged us in the chest for comfort
after a day of scenting human corpses.
At that garment factory, their intense, urgent focus.
Through tons of failed concrete & rebar,
they told us Alive!
But enough
rummaging the news for memories.
It’s 5:38 in the morning, almost dawn
and here – for now – the earth’s not shaking.
~ Taylor Graham
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