In Memorium
Alok Mehta, once a classmate and teammate of mine at Huntsville High School, was a second-year MBA student at Hofstra University. He had recently started an internship with Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City and was working in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was 23 years old."For the Falling Man"
by Annie Farnsworth
I see you again and again
tumbling out of the sky,
in your slate-grey suit and pressed white shirt.
At first I thought you were debris
from the explosion, maybe gray plaster wall
or fuselage but then I realized
that people were leaping.
I know who you are, I know
there's more to you than just this image
on the news, this ragdoll plummeting--
I know you were someone's lover, husband,
daddy. Last night you read stories
to your children, tucked them in, then curled into sleep
next to your wife. Perhaps there was small
sleepy talk of the future. Then,
before your morning coffee had cooled
you'd come to this; a choice between fire
or falling.
How feeble these words, billowing
in this aftermath, how ineffectual
this utterance of sorrow. We can see plainly
it's hopeless, even as the words trail from our mouths
--but we can't help ourselves--how I wish
we could trade them for something
that could really have caught you.
posted by Pelagius @ 7:22 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
It is interesting that you should post this, Dave. On September 11th of this year, CNBC played the original coverage, in it's entirety, of the September 11th events. I am shocked and appalled that people would want to see this...the destruction, the deliberate ambush attack and, worst of all, the pictures of people JUMPING TO THEIR DEATHS!!! I don't have an issue, per se, with the families of all these people wanting to commemorate their loved one (hopefully without $ profit), however, does anyone ever think about the children who never knew the parent, aunt, grandparent that was killed in this attack and that they are now probably old enough to understand or, at the very least, realize what they are seeing in this awful, graphic footage. It breaks my heart to think of the enormity of loss that happened that day, but must we relive it in such a macabre way??? Where is our sense of common decency? Does it bother you that you personally know someone taken in this tragedy and that it is splashed across the screen every chance the media gets? Maybe my "soapbox vision" is short-sighted, but I am very passionate about this one heart-wrenching issue!
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