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The Dead and the Quick

(9/11)

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It is a day we lived

Through,

Those who lived

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Like D-Day

Like Hastings

For the English

Or the entry of the Nazis

Into Paris

For the French

Like the storms in Indonesia

That killed thousands

In 2004

Like the killing

Of a good man

In Haiti

Recently

Wrecking the nation

For a time

Upon hurricane

And earthquake

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They are history

Beyond the idiom

And by those now gone

We rebuild and build

And sometimes pledge

Anew or new

We will take greater care

Cosmic care

Next time

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We might learn

If we should learn something

From allegories that were

Flesh and bone

And blood

Except that being found

Is good

Being remembered

Parochially,

Sometimes globally

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Forever with a double

Meaning,

9-1-1

How peaceful to be by

The memorials

A quiet place to count

And then to cry the names

Peacefully

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This place

These places

Are all over

Hopes we might be united

Everywhere

For once

An hour and a day

And then for keeps

For keeping

All the Earth

And us

For longer

So much longer than

The bugled ceremony’s

Time

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C L Couch

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(9/11/21, 11/9/21)

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9/11 photographs exhibition at photography festival Rencontres Arles 2019

Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

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