Christchurch Earthquake Live Update 2011

We don't know the names of the dead. Our friends that are missing We hope have fled. We're far away from our quaky home With internet, email and skype to roam Grateful now for each voice we hear For each life we hold so dear. We don't know when we go home whether we will find a place to roam that vaguely resembles what we used to call home. We're far away but not alone We are not alone with up to three hundred and fifty dead and over thirty thousand fled, The infrastructure crushed like bones Will anyone be left to welcome us home? "Is anyone there? Does anyone care?" We will call in vain. With our friends gone, our schools closed Shopping malls demolished, bridges and roads closed Leaping up and crashing down, more happened in the centre of town and up on the hills the houses dear have in a cloud of dust, just disappeared. Metre high watery sludge and trucks in holes Fatal boulders and close calls An emotional stream of people flows from the city to heaven knows From the city people go With aftershocks who would stay? With aftershocks it’s hard to say Who will go and who will stay? Over here where the hoot owls call We cannot perceive it all Much too big and devastating, Overwhelming, too much quaking Endless queries "are you ok?" Endless lives crave only normalcy Stay put, We love you We want everything to be the same Whilst knowing that can never be again.