September in New York
The collapsing towers
punctuated the 2001 summer like a period
foreboding
the black smoke curling perpetual thriller
on the screen would mean
terror for so many
reporters
watching horrified/weeping/dumbfounded
as body after body flew through the glass windows
amidst the cement dust faces
strangers held fast to each other
the unspoken boundaries between New Yorkers
disappeared/New Yorkers hugged
coughed up the heavy hair
meandered among the soot-covered cars
the words Hijab/Jihad/Taliban were not yet known
there was only the checkpoint traffic jams
the unsolicited notes we wrote
to long forgotten colleagues/cousins
coworkers gave each other
the benefit of the doubt
enemies shouted pleasant greetings
across the eerily quiet platform
worn and disheveled/with nothing else to lose
we were determined to love our neighbors
ever the skeptics began to believe it might last
—but politicians/and opportunistic charlatans
turned the tide quick to terror
a country made sick with talk of fear
of further attacks
folder as our leaders stacked the reasons we had to
smoke them out
root the evildoers out of their caves
within weeks boys barely shaving were bundled off
to wars in places unpronounceable
angry weapons with friendly names
were quickly aimed
at ordinary people/in Queens/in Brixton/in Kandahar
in New York
the smattering of protests were skillfully deflected
—American lives were at stake
something has to be done
America needed to act
that was a fact
images of villages dodging
cluster bombs
smart bombs
projectile bombs dominated the news
the narrative of cowboys killing savages
droned on while the streets of Manhattan
displayed crudely constructed posters
making martyrs of the missing
—September will always
remember the shell-shocked mourners
the towers/buckling/falling
the long hours spent calling hotlines
the months of not knowing
who has been at work that week
who had been fired the week before
the conspiracy theories threatened the worst in us
the religious rallied for blood
the exodus from Manhattan spiked the cost of apartments
in Brooklyn
in Astoria
in Jersey City
almost a decade later
the poor can no longer afford their own homes
every port/every bridge/every tunnel
every airport on the planet
regulates computers/liquids/gels/creams
shoes/belts/jackets/coats/hats/bags
everything is examined for irregularities
everything must be transparent
one-quart resealable polyethylene plastic bags
every year September holds still
the moment
before 9/11/after 9/11
we gather/at the end of summer
pray
reflect/remember the day
the New York skyline fractured
and sent the rest of the world
spinning
to piece itself together again
Staceyann Chin, "September in New York" from Crossfire: A Litany for Survival. Copyright © 2019 by Staceyann Chin. Reprinted by permission of Haymarket Books.
Source: Crossfire: A Litany for Survival (Haymarket Books, 2019)