THE TRUTH OF CONSEQUENCES

Foreseeable or not, it made us

wince the way that Kennedy’s

public murder made us wince.

We headed for home exactly

as we did four decades back.

We sat like mutes before

a screen and watched.

And watched.

Overnight, the President renamed

America the “Homeland.”

Travail

and travel by air became

one and the same.

Architects

competed to design the ultimate

memorial.

Pulpit and public

oratory droned like Muzak

on demand.

Attempting to assuage,

one mayor noted that three

thousand victims numbered less

than one month’s highway deaths

across the country…

But nothing

could blur the filmed moment

of impact, the slowly buckling

floors and girders and glass,

a blizzard of papers swirling

in smoke, and finally two people

out of thirty-nine who chose

to jump instead of burn‒ a man

and woman, probably co-workers,

plummeting together hand-

in-hand from the hundredth floor

to ground zero at thirty-two

feet per second per second.

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