9/11 Stuff

Every once in a while I'll hear someone use the term 9/11 and am amazed at how easily it has integrated itself into our vocabulary. You say 9/11 and people know what you are talking about, but I also find it interesting because it has become more of a symbol than anything else. Occasionally I come across something on Youtube about that is just about how stupid Americans are. Well of course with video editing you can remove all the smart answers, but you can still see that there are some people that are really uniformed. An example comes from this British TV show where they as New Yorkers about 9/11. It is really quiet sad (but I'm sure it isn't as bad as they make it out to be).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uaRJ8FqOI4k

Well while thinking about the term 9/11 I decided to write a poem about the event from a view I hadn't really seen. Not one that blames anyone or is sorry for the loss of life (don't get me wrong I think it was a terrible event), but rather one that was apathetic and looking towards the future.


2001

I was in High School when the term 9/11
entered my vocabulary.
I had just been driving to school,
when I was met by a teacher who told me
school was cancelled.
I didn't know why at the time so I drove to
my friends house to let him know we wouldn't
be having classes today.
I didn't know at the time that it would become
such a pop phrase.
We weren't thinking about that then.
I imagine that someday my children will ask
to hear that story, for a history class.
They will ask me what I was doing and how
I felt, just how I asked my parents
what they were doing when JKF was shot,
and how they probably asked their parents
about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
When I do tell my children I don't know what
I'll be able to tell them, but perhaps
they can help me figure it out.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

That poem needs to be editte some by I am interested in how the form kind of came out looking as if every third line starts with I, expect in 2 places really. I kind of like how that looks, so perhaps in revision I'll make that into a stricter form. Also they end is kind of open ended because in many ways I don't know what happened with 9/11. I've read many conspiracy theories on the internet and I have to say that as of now they are just that theories. Some of them have some merit but I remain unconvinced for either side of the arguement. Both sides tend to have good cases, but they also include bad information which then makes me doubt what is being said. So perhaps, when I do have children I will know what happened. I'd perfer to believe that it was a terrorist attack, but I just don't know anymore.