Skyline: September 12, 2001

for nick
a jedi knight from brooklyn
who wants to change the world
who during class once took a vote
on which body part he should pierce
 
for brooklyn mike and long island sean
who claimed on the botany hike
that they were getting attacked
by flesh-eating spiders
 
for manhattan nick
who almost got thrown out of school
for rock-climbing in the elevator shaft
 
for jen who says the symbol
of her home community is the staten island landfill
 
for crissy who will forever clash with her feminist teacher
about whether or not she should work at hooters
 
for eldon and donald
who had to explain to me what a ho was
 
for dave from queens who thinks pot should be legal
 
for phil who says
gay men rock
 
for hugh who is not afraid to wear a badge of silence
 
i want to write a poem for my students
but today there is nothing i can teach them
that they do not already know
more deeply than i do
 
for evan who once swam in the fountain outside the world trade center

for lauren who wears a ny city transit card on her sleeve
who plans to be a vet
although we all think she should run for president

“it’s amazing”  lauren writes “how close people
get to one another when they are scared”

for ellie who puts exquisite tiny drawings 
inside the pupil of an eye
who sees things no one else sees
 
for gena who says that leaving her neighborhood
was escaping the abyss
 
“i felt so guilty” writes gena “safe here upstate
when everyone i love was in danger”

for sasha who has sad eyes
who doesn’t want to be here
 
for andrew who finds wildlife in queens
 
for greg who looks way too young on his military id
who is so skinny
that they will send him into the crevices
to search for bodies
 
if i could write a poem today
if i had words for this silence
i would dedicate it to my students
 
for mike who lost his uncle
for steve who lost his cousin 
for daven who will go to two funerals in one day
 
for wellington
who taught me the spanish word for hope
 
for all these kids who always looked to the sky
to find the twin towers
to orient themselves
to find their way home


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Published in Writing on the Edge