A gape/Agaph

(at the 9/11 memorial)

 

They didn’t gaw daywn

They didn’t vanish

They were haram’d into dust.

 

An exposed razed throat

Lies there now,

And a tower to gloat.

Water pours slowly into this gullet,

Gash,

And all the tourists

Rush,

To tap on iPhones,

Gush,

Drop coins into this well.

 

Well what? What for? For Caron?

For Sharon, Gordon, Goodwin,

Margaret and Gary,

For Ernest,

And Yvette, John Jack and Larry.

 

(Three thousand more)

 

Bystanders, bankers, boring Bobs,

Souls. Lifted through the bones of buildings,

We have turned them into bombs.

Lifted, not drowned.

Like Farkhunda’s limp limb plea,

Black burkha burned.

 

Here lies a spring without a rise,

Without a hope.

A gape in Pavlov’s dog,

Without the love.

 

 

3 Jan 2016