I wrote this poem on 9/11 in 2002. Be forwarned, I am unashamedly liberal and this poem reflects that.
September 11th, 2002
A year has passed
In the aftermath
Of our country’s greatest unlearned lesson
We name the dead
And fill our heads
With the insidious propaganda of retribution
We are told that this is war
Assured
We don’t know what’s in store
It’s an eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
While orphaned children cry
And we ignore the truth
Years of Americans on Unamerican shores
Tallying it all in incursions and tours
Passion plays of collateral damage
And we have collectively managed
To forget
The regret
We should feel keenly especially now
When we have gained the understanding of how
The majority of the world lives
And dies
Yet the cries
Of children of third world nations
Of lesser stations
Fall on our deaf ears
How many years
How many souls
Can we kill or control
Before we grasp the error of our ways
How many days
Of playing god in countries
Who have never known plenty
Before we learn
The hatred we’ve earned
How many schools and hospitals burned
How many lives wasted
How much blood tasted
Before we understand
The impact of our heavy hand
It is this that perpetuates
Deep seated hate
Causes men to take to the skies
And our snide
American pride
Allows us to believe that jealousy
Is the cause of this tragedy
When the truth lies
In that which we deny
Our culpability
Our responsibility
In a thousand tragedies
In poor countries
Who could not refuse
To be used
To be “aided”
And we wonder why they are jaded?
How lucky are we that terror lives in one day
Not an ever present threat that is constantly replayed
When all are affected but most indirectly
Instead of fearing for your loved ones daily
When your home is destroyed in a bomb strike
Whose purpose is to avoid a gas hike
In the land of big screen tvs
And shiny SUVs
Then you can claim righteous rage
When your children waste away before your eyes
To support the lies
Of the thinly veiled fascism
Of overt capitalism
You will have borne the weight of the golden age
Each person lost
Is too high a cost
Whether you believe them black or white
Wrong or right
By whoever’s standards you choose
We all lose
When we close our eyes and turn our backs
On pointless and futile attacks
What it all boils down to
Is doing all we can do
So the few
Don’t drag the earth’s entire population
Down to prove their’s is the greatest nation
Because it will not matter
If everything is shattered
To satiate the thoughtless, heartless bloodlust
Of small men
We must make sure it doesn’t end this way
That we all accept our responsibility to say
This is our pain and our loss
And it has come a too great a cost
We will not see this wrong redone
On other mothers daughters sisters brothers fathers and sons
This has to end here
Let us be clear
We will not defile the dead
We will not turn our heads
We will demand an end to the cycle of violence
We will proclaim our defiance
We will not be misled
By the lies we are fed
We will not enforce freedom with an iron hand
While sticking our heads in the sand
And ignoring the loss of our own freedoms:
Freedom of speech
Freedom of choice
Freedom to teach
Freedom of voice
We have done more to diminish our freedoms with our own denials and lies
Then any could do with four planes in eerily blue skies
Our nations encroaching mediocrity
Painted as patriotism does not fool me
I will not participate in a misguided pep rally
For an international football game with a death tally
And it’s true that my one voice may be small
It’s true it may not be heard at all
But if you speak out with me
Then emerges the possibility
That all of us will be
Heard
And rest assured
There will be persistence
In the rejection of resistance
To the party line
But it is not yours and it is not mine
I will not accept this
Continue to reject this
Until more of us accept our arrogance
And are ashamed by our ignorance
And act
Forcing the moneymen to react
Or move aside
To avoid the tide
Of America propelling itself to a new day
We must accept that it is a long hard way
To a path of empathy and peace
But it is a place that we can reach
If we sing loud enough
Stand proud enough
Fight long enough
Are strong enough
We will surpass together our individual inability
To affect change
Together we will counteract the eventuality
Of wars being waged
I believe in our country can become more than it has been
That coming together we can truly begin
To take our place
Not just take up space
Together we can alter the way in which our country behaves
To truly reflect that this is the land of the free and the home of the brave
The Gillman Girl Home for Wayward Creatures and Unwanted Things 