©2001, Aislynn d’Merricksson

 

Where were you that day,

standing on the brink of history?

A moment flash-frozen in time,

seared into the memory, never to be forgotten.

 

Where was I?

Minding my own business,

preparing for my day-

school and work, work and school,

same old, same old,

day after day.

 

Alarmed cries:

‘Hurry! Hurry! Come quick!’

Stumbling down treacherous stairs

in time to see a great metal bird

bash itself, pell-mell, into

the side of a towering tree of glass and concrete.

The tree, shuddered, shattered,

as another bird, kamikaze as the first,

slams into the glass tree’s twin.

Both collapse upon themselves-

giants crying their downfall in shrieks of twisted metal,

spilling busy ants to the far below ground.

 

Stunned silence reigned in the small living room,

Pure shock- jaws agape, eyes glazed in pure denial.

Just a hint of fear amidst the confusion- What now?

And the sleeping lion woke, shook itself,

and roared in impotent defiance.

And we must go on with our day.

 

The sun is shining, yet the mood is somber,

made sacred by daring sacrifice.

Now tis known, other birds met their ends,

in thwarted attempts to strike down strongholds.

 

The school is quiet, voiced mute and solemn all day,

professors keeping comments at bay.

Rooms conspicuously empty of students.

Here? Here of all places?

Here in a land where justice is most valued of all?

Yet these students missing,

these visitors to our halls from other lands

fear retaliation.

 

Were they right to fear,

with things gone so wrong?

Once before have innocent visitors to this land

been chained and enslaved in vengeance

for the crimes of their countrymen half a world away.

Chained in retaliation for the sinking of the pearls of the sea.

The lion showed its teeth then,

not in friendly warning.

Perhaps rightly they feared

the lion will show its teeth again,

for ‘civilization’ is but mere veneer.