Poem: now the earth shatters

by Edith Critchley

now the earth shatters
like a ceramic plate
falling-flying- from the cupboard.
i thought it would be louder,
as it hit the rock
of our ambition.
but it's more like
the satisfying pop
of bubble wrap under my 
thumb.
 -that's all it took,
to break it all.
scare it right down to
the molten of our core.
a little pressure
right on the veins,
just enough 
to squeeze 
the pulp from an orange,
just enough 
to deprive
one man into asphyxiation.
just one.

one fifty page biography
one last dinner
(i think it was something with chips)-
now the earth shatters.
volcanoes pulled like a daisy
by a petulant child.
the drip drip of 
a tap finally turned off.

i thought it might be louder.