Views on Pain and Healing

1.
New lines drawn in history

Deciding on new
poems for a new
edition.

She says.
I have plenty,
but they seem
dated since.

I have no new
slices of
humor.
cynical
or slapstick.

I never believed
that,
“This event has
changed everything”
was anything
above media
hyperbolae
until
I sat down
and
there weren’t
any voices.

2.
One small stride toward normalcy

For weeks.
now over
a month
a bizarre
stunned
necessary
horrible
silence has settled
over this place.

Saturday night
at a sporting
event
I saw a crack,
one slowly
spreading
like chick beak
pounding
enamel shell
and real
New Yorkers
emerge
again.
cynical
and
beautiful.

We booed
the halftime
juggler.