A dragon sets the world ablaze
with one breath from his grimy snout.
His ashen tail tears the sky asunder
where once the shining Towers stood.

A dark dragon laughs, smoke billows
from his maw, as army fighters
replace jet liners, as bridges,
roads, and tunnels close --

There will be no election, no
politics as usual, no school
tomorrow, and young men will
leave their families to defend us

from the monster. As life awaits
resumption, the beast suspends us
by a claw. We live a movie --
"Saucer Attacks Pentagon" --

I saw that once, right
after "Towering Inferno"
and "Pearl Harbor".
We are at war with the unseen,

kamikazes who fly straight
to their paradise -- with hundreds
of unwilling souls. New York
will never be the same,

reminded each time
I scan the sky for our Towers
-- visible from every corner
of our great metropolis -- GONE!!!

September 11, 2001

(c) 2001 by Catherine Gutleber