Monday, September 12, 2005

a peanut of a post.

i just ate a peanut, and it completely hit the spot.
one peanut, that's it. amazing.

-- yesterday was the anniversary of sept. 11th, but i don't need to tell you that. i should have gone to bed, but i was watching the discovery channel (?) which had a documentary about flight 93, the aircraft that did not hit a target, but went down in pennsylvania. i should have went to bed, but i was riveted. seeing footage from that day again was a reminder of just how unreal that was. we are accumulating videographs of history through the omnipresence of technology and media, and i'm sure if we could see even some of the minor milestones of history winding and rewinding before us we'd be shocked, but honestly...it all starts here, doesn't it? there isn't much else to point to, few single moments in videographed history that are this appaling, this surreal. it all starts with airplanes into buildings, and buildings cascading to the earth. i shudder to think what atrocities the videographs of our future might hold...

at any rate, flight 93 is something of a comfort. i wish all of the passengers on all of the aircraft could have rebelled, could have taken the chance that those on flight 93 did; but they can hardly be faulted. for all they knew, they would be negotiated out of the plane. they had no idea. how could they? thank God 93 was in the air as long as it was, thank God they had the chance to call home, to say goodbye, to get information. thank God they decided to do what they did. not just because they averted another attack on yet another populated building. but for their sake. even though they went down, they got to go down fighting. there must have been some comfort for them that even if they hit the ground, there was some purpose to it. and somewhere within in me i am so glad they got a chance to beat the shit out of their hijackers before it all ended. it is pretty clear that they killed at least one of them before they all got to the cockpit. and i'm glad. its ludicrous that all it took to hijack an entire planeful of people were boxcutters. its comical. when i can forget about the tragedy of it, it makes me laugh. a boxcutter, are you serious? i'm a whimp, but you'd have to do better than that to hijack my plane...i'm glad to know they got the chance to put up a fight.

anyhow. kudos to AA flight 93. you're all heroes, and thank you.

--so, i'm really missing morning pages these days. much easier to do free association than to organize your thoughts into a poem. three to four poems a week is quite the challenge. but then, that's why i decided to take this creative writing class, to challenge myself. maybe it will equip me with some of what i need to start producing more finished products. i have written a few poems, and though i am satisfied with them upon completion, i always hate them a day or so later, and for always after that. but i'm posting my latest, because i think that at the very least, it is funny.

its called

a lesson from the greeks

i wonder where i
would go
if i tried to
demonstrate
zeno's arrow
while i
walked the line
of a
sobriety test

when they would try to
arrest me
i would get in my
car
and drive slowly
or quickly
away
and closing the distance
by consecutive halves
the cops
would never catch up

and when i got away
and the APB went out
for a green '94
nissan sentra
heading west on the 290
i would dismantle the
car as i drove, and
replace it with
replacement parts
until all across
the miles behind
me
my car is scattered on the road

they will reassemble
the parts
"not a piece missing"
they'll say
and they'll
declare me dead
and my father will grieve
as i drive off
the edge of the world
and get away
scott-free

2 comments:

girish said...

wow look who's been bloggin regularly!
hey phil, is it ok if i add a link to your blog from my sidebar?
see ya soon.

phil said...

girish, i'd be honored.