The Day After 9/11 (2001)
Ground Zero
Skeleton steel strewn like blown-out rubber tires
Iron girders shapeless limpid steel steaming
Sizzling steel rippling into magma
Everything else vaporized
A graveyard landscape engulfed in
thick gray-purple stifling clouds
An acid city swallowed in death
Seething earth looms heavy over New York City
as death rises in clouds of dust to darken the day
Stop the cars on the bridge
Run
Run
Run
Keep running
Don’t look back
Will we ever see the Sun
September 12, 2001
The day after
I learned to love my neighbors in NYC, America
The day after
I learned the true meaning of fear and hate
The day after
I learned what freedom means
The day after
I learned how much I truly love
The day after
I learned we might never be the same tomorrow
The day after
I learned I am an American
The day after
Smoke rose from ground zero
Like angels’ wings
Wait
Boats
Rest on a bay
Water
Blue white gray
Serene sea
Slaps echoes against the shore
Clouds
Feathered silver cream
A house
On a hill
Painted pale peach
On the other side of the world
Black caves filled with terror
Ready to kill.
The 9/11 Reflective Pools at Ground Zero
Granite footprints
Hallowed water flows
Ripples
Cascades
Sparkles
Crystals
Mirrors
Light
Drops
Down
Deep
Into immense open sanctums
Post 9/11
The cockpit door takes on a new meaning.
It is all white.
A stainless-steel recessed pull door handle will let you in or lock you out.
A bull’s eye peephole is the dead center, so the co-pilot can see who is knocking.
He can let you in or keep you out.
A narrow doorway flaps open to spread its wings
and keep a flight
