ALLEGORY Poem: The Great ‘Quake of ’24’, by Ian Bruce Johnson

As a city, my heart recalls the cataclysm
That shook and shattered it to its deepest foundation
Even so, it may someday again find its rhythm
Yet a new normal, not the old, in its station.

The city knows where it’s dangerous to rebuild
The street that was here but now is moved over there
The places of old dreams that cannot be fulfilled
Where new growth replaces old ruins, it’s only fair!

The city hopes what is raised up anew will be
Better, yet cannot be sure in its quiet moments
As it is all for the young, and can barely see
My epitaph among the temblor’s monuments.

I can never expect the young to want to seek
The things that out of my heart I now want to pour
Yet old-timers most softly and wistfully may speak
Of their world before the Great ‘Quake of ‘Twenty-Four!

© 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson.
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