Poem of the week

9-11-01 by Adam Ash

when hate falls from the sky
to smoke the flesh of innocence
and rage spills all its fuel
in the holy name of vengeance

when those who search for the living
find tied like a bunch of parsley
the sweet hands of a stewardess
hands that served a cup of coffee

when the DNA in a hairbrush
matches the crumbs of a body
all that’s left of a warm, whole life
an inch of goodbye to bury

when despair is the only way
to have sympathy in this world
and hope is a blank refusal
to understand the horror unfurled

when the many people falling
who never sought such flight
find the ground we live on a fly-swatter
that smacks their days to night

you will see two people among those
step into the morning sky
taunting gravity to seize them
from the many stories high

see them jumping side by side
holding hands in their flight above
as they shame all of the terror
with a perfect act of love