9-11-01

Crude velocity explodes
and erases dual monument

With volume turned up
today’s audience hesitates
as the news arrives

Machine by which wars sound
Echo of echo says terror sweeps
personal out of meaning

Footage repeated for staring eyes
Crime the crowd deserves
but not humans in real tragedy

We sit here safe as illusion
Here a symbol soaked with blood
our forebears spilled to keep us free
from what they could not feel

Spencer Selby