November 2018
NOTE: "Aging" is from FALLOUT (which Word Press published). I don't think the fallout from 9/ll was confined to the first responders at Ground Zero but to many New Yorkers -- especially those who developed cancer. How could that cloud of death just remain in a few blocks?
Aging
After a while we learn to mourn ourselves.
We talked of aging in the dying light,
Of large ambitions, small accomplishments,
Of hurtful actions, what we really meant.
We stayed up well into the night.
You said, "We're well for now, though nervously.
"9/ll brought this town disease."
"All valleys of death," I joked, "and leafless trees."
You smiled at me dolorously.
Downstairs our precious block was being lit
For Christmas, strings of lights on all the trees,
Snow falling bit by bit by bit.
You kneeled at the window, childlike on your knees.
Did you ever think we could come to this,
We who lived from kiss to kiss to kiss
Did you ever think our bodies would frighten us
When we were free and wild and dangerous?
© 2018 Frederick Feirstein
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