No Getting Back To Normal, a 9-11 Poem

No Getting Back to Normal, a 9-11 Poem by Michael R. Burch for the survivors of 9-11 Intrude upon my grief; sit; take a spot of milk to cloud the blackness that you feel; add artificial sweeteners to conceal the bitter aftertaste of loss. You’ll heal if I do not. The coffee’s hot. You speak: of bundt cakes, polls, the price of eggs. You glance twice at your watch, cough, look at me askance. The TV drones oeuvres of high romance in syncopated lip-synch. Should I feel the underbelly of Love’s warm Ideal, its fuzzy-wuzzy tummy, and not reel toward some dark conclusion? Disappear to pale, dissolving atoms. Were you here? I brush you off: like saccharine, like a tear. Keywords/Tags: 911, 9-11, 9/11, terror, terrorism, terrorist, attack, aftermath, victims, survivors, consolation, consolers, condolences, comfort, comforters, memorial, tribute, sacrifice, sacrifices, grief, loss, heal, healing