The Earthquake Poem by Kim Barney

My mother was approaching death
with dignity and grace.
She would become the second person

in our small town of one hundred
and seventy-seven inhabitants
to die of leukemia within a year.

Our county had been without rain
for a long, long time. It was the worst
drought that anyone could remember.

One afternoon she awakened from a nap
in her hospital bed and asked my father:
"Has it happened yet? "

He had not the faintest idea
what she was talking about.
"Has what happened? " he asked.

"There will be a big earthquake, " she said.
"The mountain will open up
and the water will gush forth."

Later that night, the largest earthquake
in the history of Montana caused a huge
landslide that blocked the Madison River.

A new lake was created by the landslide,
later to be named Quake Lake.
In our county, it rained for two days.

The drought was over.
Fewer than twelve hours after the quake,
Mother passed from this world to the next.