A Poem by Russ

Disclaimer #1: I am not big on poetry. I mean, if you're good at it, great, I love it. If you're like Ginsberg or Wiliam Carlos Williams or Ezra Pound or whatever, fine. But there is very little more painful than bad poetry. Possibly bad theater. And most is bad, in my opinion.

Disclaimer #2: I am generally nauseated by the "response to September 11th" genre. The sole exception is Spike Lee's 25th Hour (criminally underrated and one of the best movies about NYC ever. People need to get over their stereotypical conception of Spike Lee. The man is genius.) I digress (for a change...). I wrote the following poem after September 11th. It's a true story and one of the most visceral experiences I have ever had. Anyone who was in NYC those few days following "the events of September 11th," as they are known, knows that the weirdest thing was how quite NYC was. And how NICE people were to each other (shutting the fuck up for once being a major way of being nice in NYC). Anyway. Feel free ti pillory me, but I'm exposing myself big time here, so pillory gently.

"Snap Out of It"

The beauty of life here
Cannot cease to amaze
Even though that brief time is gone
When we all loved each other
In warm silence

It ended abruptly
With an unattractive girl
Pushing her way onto the Q train
Yelling at an old man
To fuck himself

We all looked at each other
(Acceptable on that day)
And through shell-shocked eyes
We silently agreed
She was evil

It was the one day in the long life
Of this invisibly burning city
That everyone agreed on everything
And suddenly this girl came forward
Breaking the truce

God bless her ugly soul
For her selfless willingness
In the face of great adversity
To keep the spirit of New York alive
To be normal