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Numb

by Kim Bennett

An earsplitting outcry erupts, the ground begins to tear. Irate, raging conflagration
engulfs, savagely feasting, releasing its anger in two individual rendezvous'.

So the city is struck by an unworthy blade,
And the towers begin to quiver and fade,
As people stand lost in the fear of fate,
Their ideals shatter; helpless, irate.

Clouds commence and engulf the sky; the sovereignty is trapped in a barrier of
fog. Dusk blocks all waves of illumination, a black hole taking rapture. Slowly, the dark
consumes all that still lingers. The shade which had once been a sanctuary, is now a tomb.

Then darkness consumes their lurid souls,
Dissipating into nothing; empty black holes,
Those who struggle, grasping their life,
Lost amidst the dust of this terrible strife.

Darkness chokes shadows into obliteration. No light of hope illuminates our
world, now in devastation and ruin. We walk slowly, our eyes never blinking. Our
hearts hammer, and our souls howl. Never, in our most baneful dreams, would any of us
imagine what is now set before our eyes. Vile are the beings who betrayed us; we were
deceived by foul creatures.

Towards oblivion; the inevitable dance,
Towards the fog of death, our minds entranced,
Merciless flames that turn red in the skies,
Those malignant demons before our eyes.

The thunder trembles in my chest as I move quickly down the stairs. Debris
shatters beneath my feet as I advance. I am breathing in the air of expiration. The dust
swells over the disheartening battle scene; only small shards of dispeling light enter from
the outer world. Screaming is swarming over-head, and the reverberating footsteps are
like bees inside my chest.

Tempestuous disturbance in reality's calm,
Dust in the air like sand blown from a palm,
Ethereal blades of angelic light; the final hope,
Yet still in the choking mist we forlornly grope.

All is blood, all is desolation. Dismembered bodies all around us, we are
out-numbered. My heart beats faster and faster. My sanity is at the brink. I cannot take it
anymore! The heartrending agony! The fact that my heart beats and theirs does not. We
sprint out, to feel the release of our prison that had once been a home.

The taste of death suspended in the air,
Tainted by the metal, dust and dispair,
We escape the dark, but not the night,
For our souls wretch at the horrific sight.

We scavenge through the debris, searching for signs of mortality. We return to
find blood, flowing over the soil, as if a drunken man had spilled red wine all over our
sacred ground.

Intoxicated by dreams of perpetual dominion,
Misleading innocents into the war of opinion,
The ground is stained with the wine of humanity,
Imprinted on my memory, this inane profanity.

They sleep on tinted red ground. The shine of the moonlight makes the dead glow
a ghastly pearl. Their eyes stare into the darkness, never letting go. The clothes that had
once warmed a body are now a cocoon, saving flesh from cannibals. This is a time of
blood. Intolerance killed these mortals, nothing else. It is all lost, the sanity, the light, the
tranquillity, all departed, lost in the bleakness of it all, lost to vengeance that was
meaningless, only to cause rupturing pain.

This empty vengeance fissures the stricken land,
Humanity's hope destroyed by humanity's hand,
Reflections in the grimly glistening eyes of the dead,
Radiant stars keep vigil, knowing of troubles ahead.

The towers are gone and the hope burnt out, long since after those who lived
were destroyed. The last flicker of hope for humanity was blown out by two cool metals
thrown
across impressible flowers, falling limply to the soil of the expired land. Crushed petals
now grieving for their injustice.

Bloody petals take flight in the turbulence,
Soaring towards the future's ambivalence,
The heartless nations and passionate savages,
All feeling the pain of this attack's ravages.

Solemn are their faces, tears form in their eyes. Turning slowly, they face their
companions. Swallowing hard, an attempt to control grief, they glance toward the sky for
answers, as if the solution is spelled out among the stars.

Shocked by this intrusion onto our sacred glades,
Ardent rage for a deed that will never be repaid,
The dead are grieved and the living in pain,
Their memories, lost, like tears in the rain.

The sun submerses in mundane existence, taking what is left of humanity.
Shadows disperse across my land, spreading desire for those who yearn to perceive as
they once did. The obscurity consumes everything in its path, devouring it, and holding it
until daybreak. As the night walks away it plunders the hearts of millions. The despairing
of mortals is seen throughout the world. They can only stare at the visions, watching the
devastation over and over again.

Their lucid ghosts weep under the moon,
Sickened by agony; night departs soon,
We are lonely survivors, no enemy to fight,
Yet embracing the dawn, our spirits unite.

The sun rises and it is a new day, the sight grasps us, ever remembering this
moment. We are awed by the lives we live, by the marvels and mysteries life will hand us
tomorrow, giving us a new day to realize life does go on. Still, we hear the stories,
perceive the loss, feel it in ourselves, and in others, because of this unforgivable
catastrophe, all the earth is numb.

09/03/2005

Author's Note: I wrote this a few months after 9/11 because my teacher thought I might be able to capture what happened. James Womack wrote the poetry lines between the prose parts, however. I had something in it about the President, and that was just removed because I actually gave him a heart. I was 14, that's my excuse. But at least it's gone now.

Posted on 09/03/2005
Copyright © 2024 Kim Bennett

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