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.
I will not forget when there was no safe place in Kobe.