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Contributor Series 1: 9/11, Bone Fragments


09.11.09 Posted in Contributor Series 1, today's words by

As we approach the somber anniversary of 9/11, we inaugurate a new series: The Contributor Series. This is an ongoing, occasional series of collections of poems by writers whose work has appeared here already or is slated to appear in the near future. This, the first of the bunch, brings us poetry of 9/11. Each piece stands on its own, but read in relation to one another these present a remarkable picture of convergence and binding. Which is, of course, the point.

Contributor Series 1: 9/11

Bone Fragments
By Annmarie Lockhart
(written September 2009)
The writer was in Englewood, NJ on 9/11.

pool-bottom blue sky
gone black with soul dust,
and the air reeked of wreckage
til the rains came in late October

poster parade of the missing
pasted up on impromptu prayer walls
that used to be chain-link fences
or walls or trees or windows

in the immediate of the falldown
no water, no power
no cell phone towers
standing; all gone dead

but the shock
and the shock
and the shock
of the shatter still reverberates

last calls and final falls
as the place that was
became the place that is
a sacred, soundless shrine of sky-strewn souls



3 Responses to “Contributor Series 1: 9/11, Bone Fragments”

  1. Jean says:

    Annmarie, your poem has such power,wrapped in subtlety.
    Thank you.

  2. Rae says:

    This is a great series of poems, all addressing a most difficult issue. Thanks for putting them together.

  3. Bobbie Troy says:

    I’m catching up on my reading, and I just came across this. I love it, especially the alliteration and imagery of the last line.

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