Poem

This poem was published in the original Podium magazine on Sep 23, 2001, with the tag line, "A Doctor/poet comments on New York in the wake of September 11."

by Anonymous-AL (Name removed by request of the author)

i haven't cried in a long time
until i saw life undermined
by soaring jets of hijacked lives
innocence trapped by bloody knives

these daggers to democracy
delivered death immediately
to future friends i cannot meet
to families drowning in defeat

numb to the contents of these days
drunk on nauseating dismay
i sit here wonder wander why
among the smokey manhattan sky

america's borders battered / reviled
her way of life now revised
a million doubts and tears she doth possess
but here me now she cannot rest

watch out for the shadows of the new terror
as it lurks to spit out more bloody horrors
marking each human life inherently unsafe
vigilance i know must not wait

The author is a doctor living in Manhattan. This poem was an email sent to his sister on the day after the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center.