Nine-Eleven: In Memoriam - Sande Anfang

[Larry Robinson]

 Nine-Eleven: In Memoriam

 
I’ll never know what spirit

grabbed my hand at seven a.m.,

made me pick up the remote.

a thing I rarely do.

Dressing for work I caught it

from the corner of one eye

heard the eerie silence of the smoke

watched the absurd ballet of the debris cloud 

the buildings crumbling like felled dancers

all          fall          down.

 
At school I was the messenger from Hell.

We huddled on the playground

disbelief excised our tongues

arms wrapped around the children

binding them to our hips.

We knew we had to usher them inside

pretend it was just another day.

 
Bush ordered orange alerts

my students had to cut a swath around the gym

to use the bathrooms. I sent them in pairs &

held my breath through the difficult questions.

The people who did this can’t find us

I told them. Our town’s too small. They don’t know we exist.

It was partly true and they wanted to believe.

 
But what would we believe

the world ripped forever from its axis

a cardboard globe gone belly-up

the dead goldfish of Antarctica floating on the top,

Alaska on the bottom

nothing in its rightful place?

 
For weeks 

the vampire news could not resist

the cruel replay 

the towers imploding over and over behind our eyes

as if by keeping the images alive we could stop time             

rewind                                                                                       

go back                                                                                      

unthink the unthinkable.                                                          

 	
	- Sande Anfang
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