Image © Pamelia Theroux-Hanief, NY 2023

“… Let’s see if the world is still there…” 
and our bedroom TV world-window complies 
with an image straight out of Hollywood: 
smoke, uniforms everywhere, something about a 747 …

Six or seven channel switches later, 
same scene: a glass and steel pillar, billowing black smoke
its twin standing so close by, reflecting the morning sun.

New image: a point of the Pentagon crumples and is gone.
New image: … some field somewhere in Pennsylvania …

“…Is this somebody’s idea of a joke??” No, not this time
No movie promo, no computer WarCraft wizardry. No joke. 
Those little hairs go up on your neck … breakfast is forgotten.

19 minutes.
19 minutes later, after the first jet hit the first tower. 
Long enough to set up cameras and microphones, 
For getting cops, cables, firemen, and crowds in place.
Then another string of surreal, impossible images

Another jet noses in…
Two plane crashes, now ... TWO? TWO? 
Two BIG jets, with the pilots, the crews  … 
the passengers … the people … Our People

Defying logic, blaspheming Humanity 
… the Twin Towers come down.

Those people in the Towers … the admin, the staff … 
Visitors, janitors … all those people … all Our People …

19 minutes, long enough
for a staring Nation to turn from disbelief
to shock and surprise, to sickened horror
to hot, raging Unified Fury.

“Lets’ see if the world is still there…”
Indeed.

About the author: Michael offers that he is entering the literary publication field in his seventh decade, and this qualifies himself as one of those ‘various marginalized identities’. It is disquieting, how often he feels the push-back of ageism. Oh, well - he is happy in his skin. His career has spanned field botanist, environmental health specialist, green energy developer and resource recovery web site editor. He is shifting from the scientific and technical environmental fields to placing my cache of creative writing; He has now had 60 poems and short stories published; his novel and chapbook collections still seek homes. Given persistence and time…

About the artist: Pamela Theroux-Hanief captures crisp digital images of the World around her. Having enjoyed two careers; first as a professional dancer/choreographer and then as a credentialed educator and Master Teacher she utilized her BFA Dance and A MAEDU Design and Instruction.  Pairing these crisp, sensitive images of the world around her with her brother’s very visual poems and stories opens a whole new realm of exploring, daunting, yet exciting.