No Safe Place in Kobe

I'm working on a song created from a journal entry that a friend of mine, Chizue Rudd wrote - a beautiful and terrifying account of being in an erthquake in Kobe Japan.  18 years ago when her daughter was 22 months old.

No safe place in Kobe

Waking up in the dark,  not knowing where we are, what is happening here.

A violent tremor rocks my world.  

 I feel the earth heaving upward and downward and upward,.

My daughter is crying, I am screaming  and running,   

My daughter is crying, I am screaming  and running downstairs, 

he grabs me, to stop me, 

from cutting my feet on the glass on the floor.

 I cannot see, but I feel many things on the floor.

 I stop walking around, before my bare feet found broken plates, and shattered glasses, flying cups all over the kitchen, dining room, living room. Oh there’s no safe place in Kobe.

For the next few days, it was freezing cold, so we put on all our clothes in Kobe.

Chizue/s creation

There is no power, no gas, no water,   

no diaper for my baby daughter, 

 no thing on the store shelves. There’s no safe place in Kobe.  We line up to get water.  We get water from river. No safe place in Kobe

Finally we move temporarily to a safe place in downtown Osaka.

Because the building has collapsed, His co-worker died,

 My ex lost his job,  No safe place to hide ...     in Kobe.

1 month later, he still has no job, we decided to move to US that was 17 years ago when there was no safe place in Kobe.

I am so thankful for everything I have right now.

My family in good health, safe place to live in America, plenty food to eat, a glass of water in my hand.

I will never forget this, I should not forget.

Waking up in the dark, not knowing where we are, what is happening here. 
I will not forget when there was no safe place in Kobe.