Trembling

The morning is clear and quiet,
The more pious among us head to church.
This is seemingly just another rural Sunday,
But as churchgoers pass by roses on the roadside
And little flags carpeting the cemetery,
They recall that at this exact hour ten years ago,
Our nation was struck to its knees.
For me, a memory stirs of my parents hurredly
Blocking the TV, pressing the mute button
And forcing smiles as they sent me to walk to school.
I walked into my quaint 1st grade classroom
To see my teacher shaking.
She sat us all down in a group,
Then asked if anyone knew what had happened.
My young, naïve classmates looked at each other in
Profound confusion.
My teacher then proceeded to calmly explain:
We had been attacked, many people had died, and our country
Was in danger.
We were in danger.
In the days that followed,
Amongst nightmares of Taliban hiding in the bathtub
And the talking heads on news networks
Using new words like "terrorism" and "civil threat",
Did I try to make some sense
Of the image cast across America:
Two towers burning as the rest of us watched in horror.
Men jumping to their deaths,
Running screaming through the street,
Or being hauled out from underneath scaffolding,
Covered in blood and barely moving.
As this day falls again, and I recall a full decade of
Bullshit that followed,
I am once again a tiny first-grader,
Looking up into the tear-filled eyes of my parents,
Trembling.


Julia

Ps: you should all read the poem 'Self-Evident' by Ani Defranco. Just do it...