The Tragic Anniversary

by Janet I. Buck
3/11/2002

Six months down the gruesome road
of licking flames, of crashing towers —
nightmares swell like tumors
in a uterus too close to the child of grief
for scalpels of prayer to slice and lift.
I count 81 flags on a two-mile path.
One of them, broad banners
on an old man’s scooter
painted the color of vanquished blood.
Cherry blossoms fall like snow.

The stoplight gives me time to think.
Innocence is not the silk it used to be.
Traffic moves as if it’s drugged.
I watch him cross, scribble notes
across a crushed deposit slip.
Perhaps the bank is fuller now,
as we recall they took a sense,
entitlement says PBS
through speakers on the radio.
Pulled the rug, the table’s cloth —
certain dishes shattered in uncertain ash.

Hands inside his winter gloves,
tender spikes of fingers curled
that make the reach his legs refuse.
Tossled hair of gray-white steel,
his Brillo zest scraping
at the scattered stones
that should have settled differently.
The cloth he waves,
symbiosis large as pride
inside the final withering.
His tires tired, still rolling
forward on the walk —
as he recalls another war
with swastikas for evening stars.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000