September 2002

A YEAR SINCE

 

It has been a year since the world changed,

A year in which my life has taken several turns.

People I have lost track of or who turned up,

Things I have held on to or discarded, events

Remembered or wishing not to revisit, persist

in memory, much too soon to be forgotten.

 

An accident, an outing, a farewell, all live on. 

My nearest catastrophe, a virus, an upgrade.

The thrill of an invitation to read from my book,

A close call fire riding with a friend, sit on the

Same shelf of memoirs, next to the altar of self.

The Eleventh of September’s small effect on me

 

Cannot be compared to my country’s anguish,

Mine, mere feathers on the scale of national woes.

Like other Americans I sleep in troubled dreams

Looking for escape, seeking missing stairwells, I 

Surrender to smoke, flames, or resort to free fall.

I have rehearsed every possibility including a trip

 

Back in time to yell at Mr. Mueller in the airport. 

“They’re going to hit us on 9-11, the twin towers

Blown up with hijacked jets, two are in Florida,

The rest in Canada, You already got "Zackey",

The 20^th hijacker, don’t let the planes take off.

Guard the United States from a terrible tragedy.”

 

If a superhero saved the country from all her

Bloody noses would she still be the great world

Power, the focus of so many awesome abilities?

Would I be able to recall a year of minor bumps

And accomplishments, would I be able to put up

With folly, publish my thoughts, live in peace?
  

©Jimmy Warner, 2002