A Still Beautiful Sky

by Lisa O’Neil Guerci


how many angels fell from the clotted air that morning?

jumping

falling
flying

the flailing futility
the gravity of terror

when their bodies met the other side

when the unthinkable pierced an impossibly blue
cloudless sky

sidewalks stained
with scarlet sacrifice

those streets hold stories
and can never be swept clean.

that perfect day started out
with
a perfect avocado,
a perfect banana,

a smoothie
to soothe me

as I recovered from major surgery

complaining,
in pain,

but safe.

clocks chimed elsewhere in cities and suburbs:

get up!
time for work!

“good morning”; said the barista.

“what a beautiful day”

yes.
it was.

Idyllic.

everything in my small world became even smaller
a minor microcosm

when the phone rang-
clanging the contrast;

enormity unfolding
on a 27 inch screen

where mere moments before
was a turtle named Franklin,
for the four-year-old

My firefighter
sprang to stoic action.
reaction..
no time
(yet)
for emotion.

time bisected
with the thick black permanent marker
of
yesterday and today

pre and post

now
and then

us and them.

the beautiful day bruised beyond recognition
in a morning~
which started as a

mundane
routine day.

never the same.

’til morning exploded

different alarms rang

order to chaos in mere moments
of mortality

and screaming disbelief
down streets
avenues
alleys

demons laughed
in rolling black clouds-
the thick choking dust chasing us

with
political agendas,
hypocrisy,
hate.

blind loyalty to deception

jagged holes
ripped through buildings,
torn through hearts

twenty years later,
the same sky
remembers
lives ended

bodies
blown apart.

and have we learned
more
than new ways to burn?

yes,
fire destroys

but light somehow
always
prevails

even as defeated steel mountains
smoldered
for months

the future
fountains

in the footprints
of what stood so tall

continually
cry out their names

in tearful
waterfalls


© 2021 Lisa O’Neil Guerci  All rights reserved.

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