9/11

9/11

A cat has
nine lives
how many
lives
does a
country have
on this day
nine years after
the twin
towers fell
I look around
and see
only silence and
the young man who
lives below me
whose friends are
visiting from
boulder
they are here for
a football
game.
it could be 1955, but
it isn't as if
nothing has
happened in
America's parking
lot where
car alarms
constantly go
off where
somewhere in
lower manhattan
a maniacal
minister is
threatening to
burn the holy book of
another tribe.
we are all other
tribes even
the small birds
I feed from
my balcony who think
the sun
owes them
another
day.



(c) Jayne Lyn Stahl