Of badly behaved humans and pallid dust-
Split screen shows tall buildings in New York
Make good targets for aeroplanes
And the Pentagon burns like any other place.
Screen cuts to FBI files, witnesses, the flimsy
Evidence (a flight manual in Arabic)
And the President informed seems stunned
Though eerily unsurprised. The two gleaming
Towers collapse again in slow motion.
"The first time an event of such magnitude has
Been broadcast using entirely digital technology"
A savvy CNN anchor comments &
Afghanistan's back on the US radar.
Special effects have improved since the Gulf War
Events can be more easily edited and enhanced
eg an instant retrospective beautifully
Counterpoints Osama's calculated obsessiveness
With a New York fireman's utter decency.
Terror moves fleshing out its agenda.
A talking head asked 'How do we process our anger?'
Now's not the time to ask who armed and trained the zealots
And why there always has to be an enemy?
Who helped destroy Afghanistan-
Why in some places peace can only mean sleep or death.
When do land mines come home to roost?
To whom do we address our regrets?
Or remember Hiroshima set the standard
For breaking glass and Nagasaki was signed
Off to test another kind of atom bomb
Well, one nuke would have been enough
How terror burned for years in Vietnam
To satisfy unquenchable domestic thirst for fire. Evil
Pure and simple rained on the Vietnamese people.
The Vietnamese might forgive yet cannot forget
Quite as easily as we can. They say no more war
Plant forests where the napalm burned.

Published in Goddess of Mercy (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2002).