Is Someone There? The Final Attempts on Getting Somoene Out Alive After the Earthquake in Tainan

In memoriam of those who didn’t make it, translated…

not my photo still…

Is Someone There

The Calls for Help that Reached into Our Hearts Had Come from the Depth of the Rubbles

Is Someone There

Don’t Know How Many Broken Walls We’ll Be Able to Break Through, to Reunite the Members of the Families

Is Someone There

No Matter that the Roads Were Completely Severed Off, the Search and Rescue Teams Still Needed to Ride the Elevators Down to Ground Zero

Did Someone Hear Something

Come, Do Make a Bigger Hole

Did Someone Hear Something

Hold On, Do Hold On, for a Little Bit Longer

Did Someone Hear Something

Relax for Now, After We Remove This Rock, Then, You’ll Be, Set Free

Don’t Know Where All the Others are

The Life Detector Didn’t Have ANY Signals, and the Pair of Never-Closing Eyes from the Electric Receptors

Don’t Know Where All the Other Voices and Sounds Came From

The Broken Off Beams, the Steel Pieces of the Destroyed Buildings, Kept the Heat Detector from Finding that Last Heart Beat

Is Someone Still Here? If You Can Hear, DO Make a Sound

A Pair of Dusty Feet that Showed Underneath All the Rubbles Seemed to Have Shaken a Bit

The Refrigerator that was Turned Over, in the Kitchens

With the Posted Notes that Said, You’d Better Love Me More

The Wedding Day Photo that Fell to the Ground, in the Bedrooms

The Frames Were Broken, with the Newlywed Still, Smiling

The Crushed Sofa, Remained in the Living Room

The Seat Cushions, Like in a Nightmare, Remained Twisted and Deformed

Is Someone There? Those Souls Still Alive, Please, DO Wake

It’s Been Twenty-Four Hours, and, You Can’t Count on Those Builders Who’d Traded Their Souls for Money

Is Someone There? Those Souls Who’d Died, Do Rest in Peace Now

Forty-Eight Hours Had, Come to Pass, the Fallen Buildings Must be Demolished Quick

Is Someone There? Those Who Waited for the News of Their Loved Ones, Don’t Cry

After Seventy-Two Hours, Those Lost Souls are Still, Ones’ Familiesa rescuer seeing if someone’s still alive buried underneath the rubbles…

You can, sense that desperation, that loss of hope, with the passing of each and every second, after the earthquakes and nobody’s been taken out yet, can’t you? And this poet clearly wrote out the hopes, the desires of the families of those who hadn’t gotten dug up yet, and you sense that desperation too, after the minutes turned into hours, and the hours marched into days, and, not everybody had been discovered yet………