When My Son Asks About My Worst Experience (Revision 2)

[Achebe]

Brings to mind the WTC attacks, but could also be the Kobe earthquake or any big disaster of that sort. Metropolis is, after all, not necessarily New York.
I like that it's open ended.

Revision

I imagine that God is shaking
a Magic 8-Ball and my tongue is shifting
between: Ask again later, and Better not 
tell you now.
Instead of a lie detector, 
I’m hooked to a seismograph.

The needle begins to move

so quickly that the building collapses
like a sand castle, next a city block,
and then Superman forgets to unwind time.
Lex Luthor’s plan finally succeeds. The whole state .....removing the 'finally' and ending on 'slides' in this line sounds better in my ear.
slides into the ocean. I want to tell
him that I can’t remember 
any of their faces, and names have smoothed 
like river stones too long submerged. Perhaps ....this is a brilliant simile
instead of an earthquake,

the needle is drawing a picture

of what might happen, 
or what’s already happened. 
I want to tell him the truth. No,
I don’t want to ask him any questions. I think
I’m only lying to myself.

If I even whisper,
the sky would shatter like glass. ...excellent

Original

I imagine that God is shaking
a Magic 8-Ball and my tongue is shifting
between: Ask again later, and Better not 
tell you now.
Instead of a lie detector, 
I’m hooked to a seismograph.
The needle begins to move
so quickly that the building collapses
like a sand castle, next a city block,
and then Superman forgets to unwind time.
Lex Luthor’s plan finally succeeds. The whole state
slides into the ocean. I want to tell
him that there are days I don’t want to die, 
that I can’t remember any of their faces, 
and names have smoothed like river stones
too long submerged. Perhaps
the needle is drawing a picture
of what might happen, 
or what’s already happened. If I even whisper,
the sky would shatter like glass.
 
I want to tell him the truth. No,
I don’t want to ask him any questions. I think
I’m only lying to myself.