A Contradiction

It was 9:05, or so, at least, claimed the clock
In the physics room, when I entered


[Physics should have been a comfort; we teach our
children incomplete models of the universe.
To revere their simplicity and revel in their
arithmetic light.]


and saw the gaping hole into another world:
Twin gouts of flame, a ravening inferno.


[It should have occurred to me then how hollow those buildings were
Exaltations of simple girders, festooned with concrete pancakes
And secured with those accursed angle pins.
Yet twice we gasped, quietly crying when]


they telescoped, in perfect observation of the laws of physics.

(9/11/01-9/11/02)