“This New Dawning” by Mark Scheel, Shawnee Mission, KS

topic: 9/11 medium: TEXT

as submitted for the “9/11” Open Call

Photo by Joseph Maino

New York
September 2001

And what do we now know?

That “Godzilla movies” after all
possessed a dark, portentous truth?

That candlelight, acapella voices
and a breeze lofting the flag
can make you cry?

That wrestling ghosts
is awfully difficult work?

What I know is the firm skyline,
as viewed from my house deck,
is only a memory—
no, what I mean to say is,
the comfortable way I rested my hand
on the railing and contemplated the distance
is no more.

Photo by Joseph Maino

And no man knows what lies beyond.