9/11 POEM: You Know How This Ends

I was conflicted about whether to share this poem, but I've seen lots of tributes today, on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, and I decided to share my own.
I wrote this and another poem (here) as part of a folio last semester after studying 9/11 in relation to trauma theory. My creative tutor didn't like the poetry much, and it spurred a fair few discussions about whether one can write about something they didn't experience. And I do think this is a valid argument, even within the realms of creative writing, and especially with such a sensitive event. But never in these poems do I assume the voice of a victim, and in this one, I literally start by explaining how I witnessed the awful events on TV.
I use some pieces of nursery rhymes and pieces of trauma theory. I just hope I have not done a disservice.



You Know How This Ends
by Bethany Frith
We saw it on the television–
Up above the world so high:
A broken tuning fork in the sky.
We know how it ends,
Can’t remember the beginning.
And what of the middle?
Fiction hijacked reality.
And the world watched
The blockbuster unfold:
Tapping at the window
And crying through the lock.
No choice: burn
Or jump.
And the world watched
Is it a bird, is it a–
Fly away Peter.
Fly away Paul.

And we heard the voices
In messages that were not for us
Yet spoke to us all.
The panic, panic
And calm
Because they know how it ends.
Life reduced to its last threads
And captured on an answerphone:
‘I want to tell you–’
‘I wanted to let you know–’
But you know how this ends:
Jack fell down
And Jill came tumbling after.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall
Down.



frithington

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