Poetics: we bought the lie (9/11)

we bought the lie

at a young age, when thoughts were innocent
and heroes wore spandex, good always finds
a way, to win, heroes never die

and then they killed Superman

it was my freshman year of college, on the front
page of USA Today, cape flapping in the wind
where the body lay of an icon, of truth, justice
and the american way

we bought the lie

because it was not long before they brought
him back like some sunday morning resurrection
and it became cliche' to die, and heroes died
as a way to the next big thing, then came back
just to sell comic books, some sick marketing
tool, and we believed heroes can never die

we bought the lie

and then it happened, men and women providing
for a family, some trying to earn an honest days wage, 
just living ordinary every day lives or police, firemen
or military trying to save them, were taken away, in
a concrete steel mass grave

and that is when we knew the lie

a daughter leapt from on high holding a friends hands,
preschoolers were led through debris by a mother,
a brother raced up, the opposite way doing his duty
a father fought for control of a plane, a middle eastern
man sat in a taxi knowing you will never look at him the same

we bought the lie

and became angry americans, searching for weapons
of mass destruction, happy to hit them back like some
school yard brawl, singing anthems to our pain as we
raised the torn & battered flag

we bought the lie

heroes die, and don't come home or back to life,
they only live on in how we live our lives

there has to be a better way,
there has to be a better way.

I have pages of poems I have written the last couple days thinking about 9/11. Earlier this week, I told my story of where I was that day. Yesterday, I wrote a scathing political poem, but have shelved it for now, perhaps I will post it later this week. Today, I am just burdened for the hate that caused such an event and hope that we can one day move beyond violence and war being our answer to the questions that haunt us.

Thank you to all who serve to keep us safe.

If you have written a 9/11 post, we are capturing them at dVerse Poets Pub today.