Earthquake

It took an earthquake
To put you to sleep,
And woke me up to the truth;
Everyone is born
With their own earthquake,
With or without a tidal wave,
Intimately private and untransferable,
Death.

Others may feel the tremors
Of your earthquake
Strongly or weakly,
Or none at all.

You alone,
Absolutely alone are
Born to bear
The brunt of its mighty push
Purged of life on your funeral pyre.

This poem was first published on a popular online blog for poetry, Dead Snakes, in April 2015.