11 september 2001

On September 11, 2001, I was living in St. Paul, MN in a basement pullman apartment on Milton Ave with two roommates. I was unemployed after finishing a year of AmeriCorps and, as was fairly typical during those self-absorbed days of feeling sorry for myself, I slept in. I was awakened by the persistent ringing of the landline and my cell phone. It was Jamie, calling from work and frantically telling me that a plane had crashed in New York and that I needed to turn on the TV. None of what he said clicked with me. I didn't understand his urgency or why a plane crash had upset him enough to call me. Chalk it up to the morning grog. But whatever sleepiness still hovered over me evaporated the moment I turned on the TV. I was not prepared for what I saw. I'm sure millions of others watched on national television when the towers fell. It was ghastly. I couldn't believe it was real. Later, I wrote this. I'm not savvy on rules of poetry so don't know if it counts as a "poem" or "prose" or just feelings on paper. But it was how I marked that day, and I have looked back at these words many times over the past several years.

I think the slogan "Never Forget" is a bit obnoxious. How could we ever?

11 september 2011

death

and fire

death

and mud

death

rained down

death

and blood

death

and sadness

death

and confusion

death 

made widows

death

and intrusion

death

and anger

death

and vengeance

death 

wreaked havoc

death

and penance

death

and prayer

death 

and hope

death

gave strength

life

to cope