All Shook Up
Bill Lowe, Sterling
Fifty years ago started out another normal day,
but at five thirty six pm Alaska entered disarray.
Suddenly even unbelievers begin to beg and pray.
For four minutes, fear and concern now flowed,
as the Good Friday quake commenced to unfold,
and the earth underneath appeared to implode.
From Kodiak Island, to Anchorage and around,
earth plates shifted while moving up and down,
as this mighty quake hit Prince William Sound.
Mother Nature, she’s powerful, make no mistake.
A hundred thirty one perished from this quake;
lives from California and Oregon she’d also take.
Aftershocks were many, the tsunami immense;
destruction gigantic, the pain severely intense.
Time had to heal what hadn’t yet made sense.
Multi-story buildings were reduced to debris;
roads resembled intense waves on the high sea,
but folks pulled together, just how it should be.
Strangers became friends, friends became kin.
A quake would destroy, new stories would begin,
and fifty years later is now how long it’s been.
That “nine point two quake” made quite a score;
a true Alaskan force not to underrate or ignore.
So are those who rode it out, back in sixty four.
