Grudges

Grudges

Easy for almost anything to occur.
Even if we've scraped the sky, we can be rubble.
For years those men felt one way, acted another.

Ground Zero, is it possible to get lower?
Now we had a new definition of the personal,
knew almost anything could occur.

It just takes a little training, to blur
A motive, lie low while planning the terrible,
Get good at acting one way, feeling another.

Yet who among us doesn't harbor
A grudge or secret? So much isn't erasable;
It follows that almost anything can occur,

Like men ascending into the democracy of air
Without intending to land, the useful veil
Of having said one thing, meaning another.

Before you know it something's over.
Suddenly someone's missing at the table.
It's easy (I know it) for anything to occur
When men feel one way, act another.


~Stephen Dunn, from the book Poetry After 9/11

Comments

Anonymous said…
January: Thanks for posting this. Not easy to find the right thing for this date, but this works. -Nic
Catherine said…
That's a terrific poem. I haven't been reading blogs much today as I feared too much shallowness, but this is good.
paris parfait said…
Thanks for sharing this powerful poem.
mareymercy said…
Awesome poem. Hadn't read it, so thanks for sharing.
wendy said…
I found myself watching PBS..and a program on 9/11...lots of different philosophical views on the event. A jewish Rabbi said if we think that (hatred)isnt part of every religion..in the past or the present, then we are deluding ourselves. He said we all need to face are own "demons". This brings no one back, changes nothing...but stops us from smugly thinking ...NOT me.
JaJaJoe said…
"...When men feel one way, act another" ending that poem seems applicable to many of us oblivious about who worldwide may be (begrudgingly) oppressed, impoverished, and enterrorized from enabling our food, goods, services, etc.

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