Christine Kitano is the author of Birds of Paradise, published by Lynx House Press. Her poetry has earned several awards, most recently an Emerging Writer Fellowship from The Writer’s Center. Recent poems appear in Atticus Review, The Chicago Quarterly Review, Crab Orchard Review, Miramar, The Pinch, and Tar River Poetry. She has lived in California and Texas, and currently lives in Ithaca, NY where she teaches creative writing at Ithaca College. Find her online here.---------
Earthquake Drills
Have a plan:
Hard-soled shoes
under your bed,
a flashlight within
reach. Bottled water,
canned corn niblets,
peaches in sweet
syrup. Comfort.
San Andreas: a lean line
on a map. How long
until your earth unzips
itself? How long
for the fault to burst
its crooked seam?
Find some comfort:
count bandages, replace
batteries, or pack
a bag. But admit
this: there is never
a plan. Instead, this:
in deep night, darkness
thick on the lawn, find
the flashlight, and with
your thumb, click
the switch. Watch
the sure light flicker on.