Aftershock – Two Poems

1) for Aotearoa / New Zealand

God is not in the earthquake,
and God is not in the landslides,
rockfalls, terrible rains,
aftershocks, tsunamis.

God is in evacuators of Kaikoura,
the people of courage
in Christchurch – barely re-built
from the last time.
God is the companion
of those who flee their homes
facing floods in Wellington.

God is in the symbolic rescue
of two stranded cows and a calf.
God is a triage nurse
in Wairau hospital,
and God puts on a hard hat
and climbs into a front end loader
for the dirty, long,
unlikely to be newsworthy,
work on roads and homes.

God is also, as Elijah discovered,
in that cave so long ago,
singing in the voice of the tui,

who repeats what it hears
for those who will listen to aroha.

2) for the United States

I am hunting for news of Aotearoa
for I have many friends there,
and I read online
about all the aftershocks,
and the damage
from aftershocks yet to come.

So I begin to reflect
on our election here
and the shifting of tectonic plates
that is Trump’s presidency.
Today’s aftershock
is the white supremist Bannon,
but there will be many more
yet to shake the ground
under our feet.

Then I think –
that’s what went wrong with us
in this country. Like me,
we see everything
in terms of our needs,
our well-being,
and that is how this happened.

I go back to praying
for all who suffer in New Zealand,
for those who rescue,
and those who need rescue.