The attack on Congresswoman Giffords et al.

I have an unconfirmed report that the little girl killed by Jared Loughner was born on Sep 11 2001.

Aleph. Incipit Lamentationem Jeremiah Prophetae.

The city sits solitary.
It is a small city. Shock
Spreads at the speed of light,
Through wide streets,
Where you can hear the lights change with a buzz.

People gather around transistor radios
Made in Hong Kong in small factories on islands.

People.
American people, in the broad American land
White and black and brown and yellow.
Smoking, and non-smoking.
Male and female he created them.
This is America.

We exchange scraps of information,
For this is America, we have Walter Cronkite
Who weeps and tells the truth.
We are not rumor-mongers, painted with tongues,
That would be Yourup where they have censorship.
We have wikileaks, don’t we?
Well, sort of, he’s an Australian, you idiot.

And we do know the truth, we do.
If three stars aligned in an equilateral triangle,
Some of us would fall to their knees,
Other would listen to Steven Hawking explain it all.

The holy and well educated doctors are scrubbed
Don’t touch them while they explain
What chances there are for the person we loved
To survive an unthinking, uncaring bullet in the brain.

But … after the first death,
That of the little girl, America’s daughter,
Borne by nurses weeping and smiling on September 11
To her Mom,
There is, as Dylan Thomas said, of London’s daughter,
No other.

Oh brother.

Edward G Nilges 9 January 2011