American Dreamz

Took my shaky stomach to the local movies tonight instead of NYC. Saw "American Dreamz" because I thought something funny would do me good....plus anything with thinly veiled "W" bashing is excellent entertainment as far as I'm concerned. It was so thinly veiled I wondered how the producers got away with it...I go to an anti-Bush bake sale and worry I'm going to disappear into Guantanamo. The previews before what turned out to be a great satire (it had Hugh Grant in it, how bad could it be?) included a 9/11 movie promo. They are currently finding "remains" and bone fragments in the Deutsch Bank adjacent to the WTC site and I have been wondering all week if any part of my friend Joyce is in there. So, damn promo made me cry when I specifically sat down for a feel good experience. Below is a poem I wrote after going down into the site on September 11, 2002:

First Anniversary

The wind whipped the names away.
Echoes in the canyon
And dust in my hair and eyes.
The grit of the dead is on my skin
And in my clothes.
We follow the concrete ramp
So white with sun glare
You don’t want to look down,
Although up is worse.
The mayor is saying something
And everyone is wearing leis.
Glass tinkles and breaks
Again and again
Beneath the black shroud
On the Deutsch Bank.
In the hole there is a box
To throw roses into.
Someone is holding a portrait over their head
Someone else is zombie walking
The place’s perimeter.
I pick up concrete
And put it in my pocket.
Later in a bar I pull it out
And picture your stilettos on the floor
It was blown from.
I think I have been breathing in dead people.
I hope I have been breathing in you.

M.J. Tenerelli