a baby
was found between the wooden shards
beneath walls in ruins
perched in irrational safety
on a blue bucket over traces of ocean
in a teddy bear suit
blinking and cold and living

an ancient man
was found
on a roof on the surface of the ocean
protected by the inverted reality
of the house he’d built
expecting water from above
as his adversary

a jailed man
was never found

a girl running from the erupting core
of her father’s anger
was never found

a mother bent before the kitchen altar
in a pressed blue suit
kneeling lightly on her young son’s yellow schoolbag
was never found

a pair of middle-aged lovers
laughing on the floor atop abandoned blankets
was never found

a stiffened body in a dedicated room
awaiting its own reduction
was never found

a thousand bodies
drowned before half the world awakened
were never found

**   *****   **

is there,
somewhere in here,
a baby,
unexpected
between the wooden shards,
blinking and cold and living
borne along, unlikely and protected on a wave
radiating outward from the brutal shift
of these – my own – tectonic plates?