Terrorism in Philadelphia #4
The first thing I noticed
The first thing I noticed
was a lack of William Penn
Liberty Place not so much
Liberty Place not so much
After the explosions
one also noticed perspectives
that had been there all the time, but hidden
But hidden, suddenly exploding, sorry, arriving
inside a mind trying to link to
a new narrative, a new Philadelphia, a new now
which included being alive, of course
We are being reassured that bombs are being
dropped “on the other side” in the name of
Philadelphia, though there’s talk of renaming
ourselves New Philadelphia-
I am old enough to remember Horn and
Hardart windows on Broad Street, 8 floors of
Leary’s Book Store, Eugene Ormandy, I do not
remember hate like we have received-
I do remember US murders of Vietnamese
the wars we fought, the murders of many
speakers of Spanish, the wars we fought
the murders of Muslims, the wars we fight
I remember Philadelphia Poet Herschel Baron
reading Poems from his Spanish Civil War Cell
Why haven’t we yet learned to hate war,
to love peace,
to find a way not to constantly invent enemies