I saw Ani Difranco read this poem on a cold February evening in 2002. There was no musical accompaniment; just the artist, a microphone and a few rumpled sheets of paper which she read from. It took a few minutes for the crowd to realize what she was talking about, but it was stone silence after that. There was a long pause after she finished and then a roar from many tear-stained faces.
I know she summed up my feelings; the ones I dare not say in public. It was a jingoistic time, a time that felt very schizophrenic; at once mournful and sympathetic, but also vengeful and out of control. I know that I desperately wanted my Country to put on the brakes, to think for once, to act rationally, to take this moment as a time for self reflection and renewal. We didn’t get that, but this song/poem sums up that desire for me. I listen to it every 9-11 and am always haunted by those last lines:
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?
Complete lyrics are here.