Tidal Wave Christopher Bernard [Total Pages: 3] Bernard Page 1 1. Tidal Wave Call it what it was, that wiped the ear of the ocean out, shook out the bones of the villages like matchsticks, trawled the shoreline of ten thousand miles and shook souls in their tens of thousands into its pocket like a handkerchief wiping crumbs; opened its mouth and lolled its tongue down the beaches like a salt lick and swallowed; the earth belched, obscenely, and waves moved out like the demands of a collection agency, mindless, heartless, betraying, like the sea, like      the earth. 2. And the Survivors A small, messy civilization, of fishing boats and      mosques, shack cafes, restaurants, bars, bit-off houses made of driftwood, coconut trees,      mud, tin, with rattlely fences, with vegetable gardens, a place of ramshackle piers and hut-like shops, of corrupt town halls, diseased doctor's offices,      unsanitary hospitals, .