3,000 DEAD

Reuters reports
at least 3,000 people were killed yesterday
when a powerful earthquake
shook northeastern Afghanistan.
Today as my hand reaches to turn the page,
I stop.
I try to take in the reality of 3,000 people dying.
3,000.
Not apples.
Not dollars.
Those are people.
Three thousand.
The number sits there as words on a page.
I try to picture 3,000 people.
Everyone who lives on my street?
The total number of people in my office building?
I think about the shock and horror
of one person dying a violent death.
Hit by a car,
lying bleeding in the middle of the street.
Or a worker crushed by a crane at a construction site.
A pedestrian hit by a loose piece of granite.
What do I know of disaster?
3,000 becomes unreality.
I force myself to think about just one.
One woman.
Trapped under tons of stone
screaming in vain as rescue workers
search for survivors through rubble.
A person.
One person.
Dead.


© Ellen Azorin