April 19th, 1995*

       I

A Victim

 

And the lie

A placing down of the child

A reassuring kiss

On the top of the head

“I’ll be right upstairs if you need me”

Smiling, comfortable

Entering elevators

Entering thought patterns

Combining family and work

Sorting

Separating

Suddenly an exclamation

What the fuck was that

Too

Late to understand

Flattened

Kissing floor

Hearing cries

No movement

Lost in the pain

The glass

The smoke

The blood

Returning

Losing consciousness

Returning

Suddenly the urge to flee

Looking for the stairs

That cannot carry you to heaven.

Lost in survival

The kiss on the hair

Knowing that she can’t be gone

Knowing that she isn’t there.

 

 

 

Somewhere beyond redemption

A hand grabs, pulls

Unable to see, you move

To an entirely new direction in your life

Blinded by blood and smoke

There is only terror, only fear

Calling upon God

Seems a little too late.

 

             II

The Perpetrators

 

Time to take a stand

Time to tell the man

Better leave us

On a course chartered by insanity

Only we can see.

 

These are not children, these.

These are not men and women, these.

They are lambs of sacrifice

Begun by Abraham

Begun by Jacob

Perpetuated by The Christ

 

We have liberated them from bondage

they have disappeared

into a better space and time.

They do not matter

They are nothing

In the Scheme

That will return to us

What is ours.

If we’re caught

We will die

With glory.

 

      III

The Media

 

Starting as the information givers

Shocked by events

Moving beyond the shock

To ratings recognition

Nothing is sacred

No one is free

Long past questioning

Continual probe

Past mercy

Past understanding

Past caring

Feeding on the carrion

As a pack of wolves.

 

         IV

Tomorrow

 

The words will talk of healing

Anger will intrude

Too much fire

To be sustained.

Burned out

Only resignation will remain

Pushed to page two

Page three

The back of section one

Lost in the TV reports

One special

“The Aftermath”

Life and baseball goes on

Save one child that says

“Tell me again daddy,

What happened to mommy?”