Fourteen Years

Hard to imagine just yesterday,

and no days further.

I could stand here and pretend this whole thing away,

but somewhere, my deep conscience,

my soul is rattled,

I cannot imagine knowing anything today,

without memory,

without a glass mausoleum in my eyes,

I cannot go forward,

and not recall the day,

my life changed while other lives,

were completely removed.

I remember standing alone,

waiting for tears,

not my own,

they were readily apparent,

I just wanted to cry with another

human soul.

On 9/11 we became a story,

yet we were the less immediate,

we were the onlookers in disbelief,

we were able to return home,

hold our children,

know we were the mom & dad,

the dancer, the politician, the accountant,

the baker, the seamstress, the stock broker,

the philanthropist, the gardener, the lawyer,

the maintenance worker, the copy man,

the executive secretary,

the executive’s secretary,

the executive secretaries,

the fireman, the rabbi, the priest,

the fucking thousands of onlookers,

that suddenly fell through the frame of our world,

and the planet watched,

as real lives burned for the sake of

nothing.