Ground Zero

I emerge from under

Ground zero

A perfect day in December

An Arab

Sells water

To thirsty tourists

Hawkers always find a shrine

To eke out their own

Survival

I stab unconvincingly

At prayers that don’t

Seem to fit the pilgrimage

To which I am drawn

The De Profundis

Comes close to the truth

Out of the depths I cry

Cry being the more

Authentic and muted now

In contrast to the tumult

Tumbling in this place

On that day

As on the day

Of President Kennedy’s

Assassination

We know exactly

Where we were

When news broke

And we circle now in silence

Watching for whatever

Listening to the clang

Of steel

A constant Angelus

Promise

Of what will be

The cemetery building site

Struggles slowly upwards

While the pain of thousands

Pulls and holds it back

The dead have slept

And go on sleeping

Survivors scream

In nightmares not deserved
An interrupted life

And all the while
The traffic drives

And joggers run

But all of life is marked

And always turns its head

In this direction