“No, I was not pulled from underneath the rubbles.
I was never even in danger’s vicinity.
Nor have I been cross the Potomac to Pentagon.
And yet, I carry all the symptoms:
My hands shiver as I write these lines,
feel structurally broken inside
fear resides in me permanently,
and I relive the horror by the minute, 24 hours a day
I feel trapped on the 94th floor
with the firewalls closing in on me.
I feel hopeless in the back of American flight 11 calling
my loved ones goodbye.
I feel reading a fireman’s last rite before
getting struck in the head by falling debris.
I feel numb, nothing, nothing at all.
You see, we’re now a nation of survivors
grappling to set things straight again,
to live a normal life
by internalizing fear and vigilance in daily life!
We survive only in unity and compassion
and by the wrath of our oceanic anger
& resolve — to make this a better world:
our new manifest destiny.”