TWENTY YEARS AGO
A poem by Anthony Noriega-Carranza
Twenty years ago, I went out for breakfast at a Brazilian deli
in the Center of Cliffside Park.
Twenty years ago, I had a woman whom I could not trust.
There, then, I saw the smoke on the skyscrapers
as I was having my morning little meal.
I thought it had been an accident of a small plane
as shown on the small screen when the fumes started
and soon augmented over the face of devilish terror.
Then, I drove on Bergenline and along the Boulevard
and I reached the three resembling Galaxy towers
in the middle of the crowd on this side of the river
and I saw the burning flames from the tallest towers.
Twenty years ago, I heard the news, as I drove away,
that the twin towers had fallen, one after the other.
And for the first time, I felt quite sad where I was.
And for this, since then everything has changed...
There was no more love, as I uncovered the truth.
And there were fewer jobs, as friends and businessmen died.
There, I missed former school classmates, friends, and acquaintances
who vanish in the air like kites or flying puppets,
and some neighbors who never returned home,
and firefighters, and also other heroes who could not do so.
