DENNIS MAULSBY
EXCERPT FROM A VETERAN'S 9/11 LETTER
For years we old combat veterans
have felt our past fear, loss
and anger gnaw on us part of every day.
On-off raw images of tracer lit
ambushes, hollow crumpled bodies
and the ruins of smoked buildings.
Until September 11th, thought we were
the only possessed ones.
Didn't want others to know these feelings.
How could they know?
Our collective centuries of service unable to protect them.
Lord, have all Americans become
traumatized vets?
©Copyright December 2001 by Dennis Maulsby
Previously posted on the Des Moines Register Community Poem page (December 2001)
PICTURES FROM ORBIT
The satellite camera clicks.
In a globe of clouds and air
a tiny city shakes.
White flakes swirl in streets
between smoking glass towers.
The telephoto lens zooms closer.
Vines of fire snake-crawl upwards.
Shattered crystal eyes weep little dolls
to fall and break upon the concrete.
Stone and metal avalanche down,
sweep away men in blue and yellow.
Smoke and ash billow out
to make running people gray,
no black, white, red or brown,
a day of only one race —
they beg for a hundred years of sleep.