Tuesday 9 11 2001 6:00 a.m. PDT
::Alarm clock rings, rings again. ::
Up, get up. Shower. Dress. Feed the cat: “Savory Salmon?” or “Chicken with Gravy?” Salmon. Get newspaper. Clear skies, no fog, sun’s up, another warm day. Hummingbirds jousting in the Mexican Sage. Coffee’s ready. Meeting at 10:00. Just another day in the neighborhood.
Tuesday 9 11 2001 6:30 a.m. PDT — NYT Home Edition
::reading::
“Scientists Urge Bigger Supply Of Stem Cells”
Just another day.
Tuesday 9 11 2001 7:00 a.m. PDT
“Janet!! Hey!! Coffee’s ready! Time to get up!”
”Mumble, mumble. Cat-talk talk.”
::Shower noises.::
Tuesday 9 11 2001 7:20 a.m. PDT
“So, You. What’s new?”
“New? Not much. That crazy car-alarm mockingbird is back. You?”
”Not much. Meeting with Roger. You?”
“Budget meeting. Here, read this. — I need to check the traffic report.”
::Television warms up.::
Tuesday 9 11 2001 7:22 a.m. PDT — KCBS Channel 5
::Television talk makes no sense.::
”What!? What the fuck!!!??? What the fuck!!!???”
”What?!! What’s happening?”
”Come here! Now!! Jeezus! A plane hit the Twin Towers; they’re showing it now!”
”What! What!!! No! No! That’s where Sarah works! Today’s her birthday! Shit! No, no, no!!!”
::Chair crashes onto floor.::
Tuesday 9 11 2001 7:27 a.m. PDT
Falling from a Height, Holding Hands
What was that?
storms of flying glass
& billowing flames
a clear day to the far sky —
better than burning,
hold hands.
We will be
two peregrines diving
all the way down
~ Gary Snyder, Danger on Peaks, 2004.
Tuesday 9 11 2001 7:35 a.m. PDT
::Standing together, stunned, holding hands, watching the TV.::
“Gotta go. I’ve gotta go.”
“What? What?! Go?! Go where?”
“The office. Gotta go in.”
“Why? Stay here!!!”
“Can’t. Can’t do it. I’m a ‘designated emergency responder.’ I gotta go in.”
“Shit! Call me! Call me when you get there!”
Tuesday 9 11 2001 8:10 a.m. PDT
Light traffic on 280; people staying home. Cancel budget meeting. TVs on in the large conference room. People drift in, gather together, stare: quiet, confused, unbelieving. Tear tracks on faces.
Tuesday 9 11 2001 8:10 p.m. PDT
Janet finally contacted Sarah late in the day. Sarah was lucky. Very lucky. Because it was her birthday she was running a little bit late to work. When the first plane hit she was waiting for an elevator in the ground floor lobby. The building shook. Flaming jet fuel exploded into the lobby from an elevator shaft. A security guard led her and others to an underground passage that surfaced a few blocks away. They emerged into a world of shock . . . and dust. It took Sarah the remainder of the day to make her way home. Her birthday.
Sunday 9 23 2001 — Two weeks later: Chicago Tribune
White September Sky
“A screaming comes across the sky. . .”
Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
How did it look to them
in the first frozen second of the brand new war,
when sky and fire opened the walls?
Vengeance is not enough.
Sometimes it seems the dead are waiting,
ghost riders paused in shock before they go
on to wherever they go.
They want us to see what they saw,
as their exploded memories began to unravel
through the air, until only the air remained.
We watched the clouds they became,
their dust filling our eyes, our lungs, our blood.
We breathe them in, we have no choice,
and their blood flows in us, as we move, stately,
into the passion of war, the romance of revenge.
But some remember, in that second at the window,
lovers, children, all the white Septembers of joy.
Bless them in the middle of fire, bless their blood,
heroic, that we bring to war, bless their final end.
Vengeance is not enough. They wait for peace.
~ Anthony Libby, Chicago Tribune
September 23, 2001
Saturday 9 11 2010 7:00 a.m. PDT — +9 Years
Where were you?