TERRORIST ATTACK ON AMERICA                 9-11-01

i have often been impacted by death before 
but it was always vicarious 
it belonged to somebody else 
but with its radiative power
enveloped me in its sphere of influence

today death rained its vengeance on 
america
new york/ washington 
the masterwork of ultra terrorists 
whose fanatical devotion to a cause 
of little concern to the average 
american citizen 
destroyed not only the twin 
world trade towers
but a vital part of the american psyche too

it stripped naked our security of mind 
exposing our soft under belly of vulnerability 
to the determined efforts of a few 
motivated by a conflict far removed 
from main street/
their devotion to a religious mindset 
most americans find alien

no real frame of reference in sight 
or in mind
except the awareness of a hatred 
for america taken to the nth 
and an abundance of potential victims 
targeted for destruction by a vicious 
turn of fate

death revealed none of the usual signs 
that it was coming 
to reap its harvest 
but then again is death obligated to 
knock on the door first?

i was nowhere near the point of impact 
of death
yet there is something in the deaths of these 
thousands of innocent people 
that is not so vicarious 
for with them something intangible 
in me died too

it's too soon, i say to myself 
to be objective about this reality/ 
maybe any sort of objectivity will 
elude me for the rest of my life

i wish i could feel the pain of it all 
but right now i am insensibly numbed 
staring at a television screen 
a believer now in what i found 
unbelievable this morning

what in me has died along with 
the thousands who outrightly perished? 
it's not my sense of humanity for that 
in me is deeply entrenched 
it's not my faith in america for i 
kiss the ground i walk on

maybe what has died was a hope that 
man would some day pass beyond the stage 
of being a renegade killer 
motivated by pure malice
for the sake of some cause or another

maybe what died was a visionary hope 
that globally we could finally come 
to live in the mind set of sanity...