The Whiskey Taster’s Flavor Guide

Manhattan Under Dusty Clouds

The red-bellied woodpeckers
and wood thrushes of Central Park ...
hanging in majestic oaks
and shady dogwood trees,
woke up early to greet
the glowing sun from the East,
and unable to speak 
in the human voice...
they used their melodies
to send us this message,
"There's sorrow  lingering
in the September warm air;
summer is ending
and fading out
like a distant star;
from a short distance
tragedy will strike
to shake everyone up
with horrendous fright...
death mocks life
with a foul laugh!"

When peace dominated over 
the still and peaceful 
New York Harbor,
Manhattan found itself under
clouds of debris and dust 
and the stifling,black smoke
could be seen from each County...
to dispel the wrong assumption
that it was the safest city!...
And this act of terror
stirred up much contention
to have struck it so unvaliantly!

Manhattan under dusty clouds,
never before we heard anguish in voices...
as fighfighters raised the American flag 
on a pile of smoking rubble:
they were so courageous and didn't tremble...
what was so pretty,looked so sad!

Those swelling and blacks clouds
haven't vanished yet
in the drifting winds,
they are stil rising...
unable to be forgotten
and many would have given
their own lives to prevent
all that from happening!
We silently stood there so helpless,
crying and praying even for the strangers
who couldn't fight 
the smoke and flames
and live to tell their story,
which others will write
for their country to be read aloud,
but many will relive that tragedy!

Manhattan under dusty clouds,
the greatest city under siege...
putting away its prestige,
but calling out to the Nation
not to resist the deed of mortification
and become vulnerable to more attacks!

Manhattan under dusty clouds
in a month when daffodils and lilacs
made it beautiful...waving in grassy meadows,
forcing the broken spirit
to leave that spendid Paradise
and face a crude reality and weep!

Manhattan under dusty clouds,
but the flag still waves with pride,
and anyone counting its stars
knows that they are intrepid...
truly inseparable by those
sharing the same fate and beliefs!
Copyright © | Year Posted 2006

Poem

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The Whiskey Taster’s Flavor Guide
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace