Two stories

Two Stories (a reflection on Sept.11)
The twisted, crumbled smoking remains
of the sky-scraping twin symbols, epitomes
of American success,                    
way of life, envy of the world,
representation of the "ONLY SUPER POWER"
left in our world. Going it alone, doing
as we please, if we please.
Surreal scene, but real, very real indeed,
as our very famous, well paid commentators
assure us in deep, sonorous voices, in
hour after hour, minute after minute
updates, of "who did it?" and the bigger
question, "WHY?"

In the midst of this, a remembered scene,
also surreal, yet real indeed. On a 1984
"pilgrimage to Lutherland" with a bunch
of Lutherans, we stop in Dresden,                          
after touring Buchenwald, where our
poet-preacher-prophet  leader suggests we remember
the "stations of the Cross" as we walk through
this infamous concentration camp .
Then we come to the huge rubbled remains                 
of "Mary's church" (Mariakirken)
which is the burial place of thousands
of persons who sought refuge from days
of fire bombing this city by Allied planes.1945
We are told there were no military targets
The war was ending soon.
Only a tall spire on one end of a rubble heap
reminds us of what it was.
Two unsought burial places.  WHY?
They told a story of a veteran-become peace activist,
Who visited Dresden with his small son. He asked,
"Daddy, what happened to the little children?"

Poet The Floet


update: couple yers ago on a  bus tour to Prague, we    
stopped at Dresden and found it being rebuilt, stone
by stone after 50 years as a pile of rubble

Anmärkning:
Florence Pendergrast fick, i november 2007, mottaga
Minnesotas tredje pris i poesi-genren.
Red. Bo Sigeback

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