September 12, 2008

Eugene Schlanger, the Wall Street Poet, has passed along his latest poem September 12, 2008 which he released for the 4th of July 2009.

September 12, 2008
“To believe in the heroic makes heroes.” Disraeli

by Eugene Schlanger, the author of September 11 Wall Street Sonnets (Paris 2006)

1.

An old sailor disembarks
From a tour bus parked
Adjacent to Ground Zero.
His worn cap identifies
An American vessel of war
From another confrontation.
The sailor’s legs buckle
As he slowly descends
The well-worn steps.
His loose translucent skin reflects
Another crisp September morning.

Early-risen tourists chew breakfast bars.
Unlicensed sellers do a brisk business
In glossy photographs of death.
Nearby, new columns arise
That will anchor our monuments
To mourning and despair.

2.

How odd for Americans
To continue to identify themselves
As united in anguish—as victims—
Claiming especial treatment from
Ineffective governments.

The sailor is silent.
There’s nothing to see
Nor much to say.
This is where the political class
Turned again to the common man
In uniform.

3.

We may not need nine despondent acres
Nor clusters of empty towers
To honor the dead of September 11.
A replica of either small statue
At Lexington or Concord
May be all that is necessary.

We are a nation of individuals
Whose fortitude and valor
Need not be
Continuously
Rebroadcast.

4.

One day your children’s children
Will walk north along Broadway,
From the Battery, past Wall Street—
Past Alexander Hamilton, still
Quietly entombed at Trinity Church,
And the descendants of Whitman and Melville,
Of E.B. White and Murray Kempton,
Of Scorsese and Lee, each busy recording
The vitality of this port, arisen anew again.
You and I will live forever.

© Copyright Eugene Schlanger, 2009 - All Rights Reserved - Tous droits réservés