Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
Stephen Arney
A gunman invaded an
Amish schoolhouse, held
children hostage for hours,
killed five of them and
himself.
The Amish families of the
dead took food to the gunman’s
family in condolence — “You
too have suffered loss” — then
tore the schoolhouse down
and turned the land
into a field of grass.
What if the American
families of the dead had
taken food to the families
of the hijackers to console
them — “We are sorry for
your loss” — and destroyed
the Twin Towers utterly
and plowed the ground
into a field of grass
left to grow until every
drop of blood and shed
tear were transformed
into sweetest dew.
My Cat Saved the Life of a Bird
Stephen Arney
We were downstairs in my
office and she jumped on top
of the cold woodstove then
down in front to look through
the glass, very intently, tail
swishing, so I went over
and looked in too and saw
a wren, just back from the
south, fluttering about in
the firebox.
I took Chenowith upstairs then
returned and opened my office
window and removed the screen
and pulled open the door on
the stove, sat down, waited a
minute until the wren hopped out
on the lip, paused then flew
across the room and out
the window into the sunshine.
After I cleaned last year’s
nests out of the bird houses
and put them back up, I sat
in front of the house and
watched my father’s ghost
amble through the forest
above the driveway. He
didn’t see me — hasn’t seen
me in forty-seven years.
He turned away and for the
second time disappeared
without saying good-bye.
Stephen Arney lives in Gold Hill, Colorado; his poems have appeared in Full Circle
and the Bryant Literary Review.
Send poetry submissions of 250 words or fewer to [email protected].
