It was 12 or 13 years ago on Tuesday, way up north,
I was teaching CPR and first aid, a beginner’s course.
There was high school, there was old school, pleasant banter back and forth
When the ghastly news came crackling down the wire.
We were working with a dummy who had had a heart attack
And the younger kids were nervous when we laid it on its back.
Its skin was soft and rubbery, it’s eyes and gaze were slack
When the world around ignited like a fire.
Now, we were far from modern, ’bout as far as you can get
And the fact of evil doers hadn’t hit us just as yet
But when we heard those towers fell, and saw it on the set
Humanity got roasted on a pyre.
the kids were scared, the elders fared no better from the news
their world imploded, ghostly terror peeked from every view.
neighbors became enemies due to actions of a few,
and common sense was no longer required.
There are no natural borders now, there’s only us and them;
We’re scared, we’re proud, we’re jingo loud, and so quick to condemn;
these catastrophic incidents should wake us up, but when?
instead the moral ground we claim is higher..
there are no lessons to be learned, there’s just a raging fever.
the good guys here, the bad guys there, both camps full of believers.
we don’t address the problem at its core, and so we leave it
to the business corporate governmental patriotic choir.
by now a dozen years gone by, and, starting to unfold,
are little groups of sanity and little actions bold;
we string us all together, the true story will be told
and our kids will take control as we retire.
we’re ‘sorry this’ and ‘sorry that’, and yes we’re bloody sorry,
a sorry lot is old mankind, it makes a father worry;
belief in ‘x’, and faith in ‘y’, our vision’s getting blurry,
let’s leave the ghosts, and ‘lord of hosts’; to our true selves aspire….
jmidworth 
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