So it just seems to be a random visitation of a geological phenomenon whose timing is curiously cruel. Like a horse trying to throw off a rider, earth shook at a place and time that is an epicenter all its own. Poets would have a field day with this terrible confluence.

The people in the northern province of Baghlan must have felt at first that it was bombs causing the earth to shudder. It has come full circle. When bombs fell people would say it felt like an earthquake. Now when there’s an earthquake they say it felt like bombs were being dropped.

Recent earthquakes hit Afghanistan in 1998 – the same year that the first bombs were sent to destroy the arch villain who is now “marginalized” and not a worry for our present commander-in-chief. Of course the earth doesn’t respond to something as minor as a few man made bombs. It’s just an exercise in literature to connect man’s actions with earth’s manifestations.

A poet could say that the quaking of the earth from shifting plates has an uncanny resemblance to the tremors felt from bombs hitting their mark – or missing their mark.

Then there was a bizarre headline from CNN.com on March 27th – “Baffling black blob floating near Florida.” Fishermen say the fish they normally find in those waters have disappeared. They say the water looks “snotty” – “like sewage” and “nasty.” If an earthquake in Afghanistan echoes the bombs dropping in that country what recent human event is a baffling “dark brown-black-green blob” off the coast of Florida reflecting? If a poet wanted to venture a correlation…no – it’s best to let eloquent earth speak for herself.

Bill C. Davis is a playwright http://www.billcdavis.com/

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