LATTICED STUBS
on learning that the $2 billion leaseholder
of
the world trade center promises to rebuild it
so now the towers come
down
to latticed stubs
after three days
those left inside
are not the builders/owners/architects
of this collapsible world
not the architects of state
in their bypassed flown-over irrelevant
white house
but the mostly anonymous workmen and women
whose pictures
festoon trees downtown
and their desperate deluded executioners
all
entombed together
flights of allegory will resume in three days
new
palettes of false identification
confusion is still
expressive
compared with people walking from the city
its history is
one
of merely technical skill
pick one short life and practice it to
the world
rebuild it? let's build nothing now awhile
Lee
Ballentine