My veins thunder

drowning out the dizzy

cacophony from the Shanghai streets.

The sun hangs still

a cornerstone in the sky.

High pitched chirps of young school-girls

fluttering past me

a colorful array of navy blue skirts

blood-red ties spilling from their

necks

heading towards the large commercial mall

nestled comfortably in between

my arms.

Businessmen in staunch, death-black suits

wither

weighted down by their suitcases

by their homemaker wife waiting at home

watching their husbands be swallowed up by light

and 12 hours later,

emerge from an abyss of shadows.

A mother’s voice rings out

scrambling to cut through the bedlam

to reach a bouncing child

drifting among

a current of pedestrians.

Abruptly,

a rumbling sounds underfoot

deep and whole

the earth moaning in agony.

Swallowing

shrill shrieks of surprise

from the schoolgirls’ blood rimmed mouths

bewildering grunts of astonishment

from towering death-clothed businessmen

the mother’s voice skipping like a record

from fear to frenzy laced

the child still wandering

floating above the sea.

Seconds staggered on by

thousands of furrowed faces raised to heaven.

A split second slammed like a guillotine

The sky exploded.

My body is shattered.

Chunks of me were blasted off

My skeleton gleaming like polished silver in the sun

Layers of me hunch against the sidewalks.

The schoolgirl’s red had burst like fireworks inside her

The businessmen’s black had ascending into wisps of putrid ashes

The mother lay silent,

Face smashing into the cement sidewalk

Her toddler left to wail on the edge.