A dear friend authored this deeply personal and quite beautiful poem. I am honored to be able to feature it here.
“Things You Don’t Write About 9/11/2001”
by Stanley Anne Zane Latham
It was an ordinary train ride
You, me, Leita, and Dan
We didn’t mean to get separated.
We didn’t mean anything
in those days. We were
in college. It seemed
like we were rebels. Our parents
ate cabbage; our parents. Gosh,
we thought, what happened to them?
We simply got on a train. We didn’t
tell them. We were skipping school,
old enough to be our own.
I have to tell them, you loved me.
Dan loved Leita. I loved you.
We all kind of loved.
It was supposed to be
a simple day in New York.
It was supposed to be
A simple day in New York.
You don’t want me to bring
our life after this back
to this. Moment. There
is nothing like an almost.
In the aftermath, when the train
stopped, when no one was
ever the same again; i mean
the conductor said – Do you remember
what the conductor said?
i remember : it was a morning train
i remember : the birds flying at the windows
i remember : You shrouding me across
the platform.
i had you. You had me.
Dan had Leita, Leita had Dan.
We were never the same.
Photo credit: “F coming into Smith-9th,” by Error46146 at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 