9/10

Change the nature of a day
Arc time the other way
Cease the reports
Rewind, retract, contort
The hands on the clock
Make them stop.
Hold the calendar on this page
Let 9/10 forever stay
All ghosts returned
To bodies unburned
All tears un-cried
None survived
A catastrophe that didn’t occur.
9/11’s not a word
We are still innocent
180,000 living souls still ignorant
Of the death that could have come
If some atrocity had been done
On some date not yet happened
That would have led us to attack them
And $437bn would not be allocated
For costs to the "war on terror” related
Instead Make Poverty History
Could have had $375bn maybe
That is needed to clear the debts
Of the world's poorest nations we have yet
To fulfil promises once made
In a once upon a time G8
Ali Abbas would be able to clap
At 12 years old he liked that
Along with the chance to throw a ball
Roll up his sleeves and see all
Of his arms that would no longer be
If the page turns to a day of misery
But on this day that will remain
Orphans unmade by parents sustained
Cindy Sheehan is ironing with a smile
Knowing that Casey will be home in a while
Women at work and kitchen sinks
Have never heard of Code Pink
Petitions unwritten, marches un-walked
Politicians on other subjects talk
People go to work at the towers
The skyline still has an awesome power
Its profile complete, no parts that gape
No holes in sight on familiar landscape
Twins, in tact, in sight, in view
Populated by so many who
Will be going home tonight
Everyday husbands, lovers, wives.
And all our soldiers are in training camps
Or deployed to familiar lands
Not statistics from Iraq
Or gone to Afghanistan without coming back
Our phone calls reach only one set of ears
Our media doesn’t spoon feed us on fear
Just hold on tight for a moment
And a moment more
So that now, can still be
…the day before.

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Written in 2006