Back during the time of the 9/11 attacks I lived
in the front room of a friend – working two jobs.
Experiencing events over and over on CNN.
Anxiety and alarms were everywhere!
I dreamed of jets crashing during fitful sleep.
A new federal department was created,
and the last of our innocence was lost.
Now we had to go through security cordons
everywhere – security became the new sexy.
But I survived, kept on, maintained.
We moved and he bought a house. . .
Eventually I bought a little house on my own,
started gardens and shrubs, perennials.
Babies I nursed through many seasons.
Watched them all grow and bloom and fade,
trimmed back Spireas, dug and replanted Cannas.
Hibiscus were culled and encouraged, Cosmos
seeded and then helped along, year after year after year.
Raspberries and Aronia planted and then harvested
with much satisfaction, despite all of the mosquitoes.
Our national leadership started several wars,
some finally withering away due to
faltering political fertilization.
New leaders began new wars.
It seems like everything keeps going downhill,
and there are no easy answers for turning it around.
Friendships, too, got seeded and nurtured over time.
Now some are like tall trees, withstanding storms.
Others get neglected, and wither away.
Some of those are missed, but
one gardener only has so much energy to go around.
Now here 25 years after the Twin Towers attacks,
some still stand here and regard the tragedies;
missing those that were lost, mourning their loss
from a misty distance of time, always wondering
how we could do things better the next time around.
