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I Remember it.
6AM- mom rushed in to wake me up.
She told me about a plane…
A plane that hit the World Trade Tower.
I did not really care.
But I saw them when they fell.
I was in my political science class…
And I cried in horror for our lives lost.
I was in my political science class that day.
Democratic differences, we were supposed to learn.
Omit violence! Learn the theories!
Passively… naively – I listened. But not that day.
We watched the towers crumble,
And the 5 pointed building burn black.
So I bought an American flag sticker,
And I put it on my truck.
I wanted all of them to know…
Whose flag they would see coming to kill them.
And I said ‘Fuck all the rag heads,’
Paying my taxes for it.
I watched Rome on fire,
And I knew we would find our Carthage,
A war on terror it was to be called…
As difficult to attack as it is to define.
Yet our ‘just cause’ was born thousands of years ago.
In another Rome that burned down.
He said we would not rest until they were all caught.
A column in the New York Times vowed that
We Would Not Run.
But we did- with guns in our hands, straight for vengeance.
And two months later, I stood around it-
The epicenter of that day- a gate around a graveyard.
The people looked solemnly, peeking through,
Like a cemetery where the dead were not buried.
I sang a song of war, our anthem, and cried like the rest.
And I signed my name on the dotted line,
And thought about the day I sat in my political science class,
Watching them smoke as the bodies burned.
The mothers cry, and the fire fighters fry.
The Air Force recruiter told me I was a patriot.
I went on with life, thinking I would be a hero.
To avenge those whose lives were ruined,
But the media kept telling us that…
Our whole world was changed, we must prepare.
War with them, and others, had to come.
We had to remember that day, remember the innocent people killed.
And when I began my inquisitive journey, I did.
So I read about Somalia, and I pondered over Bosnia,
shook my head at Nicaragua, wondered about Haiti
Was confused about My-Lai, and finally,
I questioned Afghanistan.
And I realized that there were other innocent people.
I learned about that in my political science class that day,
But not for months later did I see it.
Too many inconspicuous lies, a bit to many political ties,
A few too many pipelines.
If our national security means world supremacy,
Then we will never be safe.
And finally, I began to think of their lives lost,
And all mothers who cried, as other’s bodies
We brought away…. They burned the same as ours.
And I knew what it was to be a racist,
Because I was one.
Subliminal bigotry flowed through me.
But that is what us versus them brings.
It was an exclamation point upon a question mark.
I knew my values now conflicted.
So I did not miss my mark, when I erased it.
My name from the dotted line, gone.
9 protests, 112 prayers,
1,430 hugs, 56 books,
13 fliers and 2 years later.
Two years after the streets turned blood black.
We are supposed to learn about politics, in a political science class.
And we did, that day. We learned how politics works,
Far greater than the textbooks or theories could show.
An Iraqi girl was killed today, the television anchor said.
She said something in Arabic, but they did not translate it.
Editor’s bias is far greater than blatant lies.
We saw that from the embedded silence by the Tigris river.
I am in another political science class, an old man now.
History seems like a vicious dog,
Chasing it’s tail to tear it off.
But in this outrage, perhaps hope will find us,
Like our mother’s touch, not shielding us from the rabid dog,
But comforting us instead.
And we still learn about political theories,
While other’s buildings burned.
And the babies bawl for the food they don’t have.
What has two years changed except more lessons in politics?
Power and money seem to be,
What really toppled the towers.
A war on terror? What is it that so many others have felt,
When they saw our bullets fly towards them.
The innocent screams are lost, to the flag that was once
On the back of my truck.
And after my political science class today,
I finally found a translation to the murdered Iraqis soliloquy.
The little girls words captured before her life was ended,
By an American bomb.
“Why does liberation smell like metal burning, and feel like fire?*”
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Michael Newton-McLaughlin
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Comments
Simon Moss | Oct 28th, 2003
Thanks Mike
USA hypocracy Shah Khanam | Dec 1st, 2003
I know it's sad that many people have killed in Sep 11 attacks but what USA is doing now is also unjustified! too many people have suffered in Afghanistan & Iraq than what USA's people have. USA is such a BIG dictator that it didnt even listen to UN or any other organisation
In agreement Michael Newton-McLaughlin | Dec 1st, 2003
I was attempting to show some of the hypocricy in the writing... I thought it came accross pretty well, no? Remember, it's not just Afghanistan and Iraq that suffers because of imperialism - US or otherwise. Just because a military has not been sent in does not mean we're not partly responsible for other wars or dictators.
US Empire Yasmary Mora | Jan 16th, 2004
All empires fall at one point or another. I am very much against them getting inovolved in other people's businesses. 9/11 burst the bubble they were living in, although obviusly many in charge still live in it.
honest character katherine | Feb 24th, 2004
your character changes so well through this poem (yourself i guess) the story really captures the feeling of change of heart.
lovely!
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