This poem is part of the special section, New Poems of U.S. History, reflecting on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence selected by editors Carolivia Herron, Summer Tate, and Robert Bettmann. You can read more about the section on the Day Eight website here.
The towers keep
falling. The towers
keep falling. The
towers keep falling.
The towers keep
falling. The towers
keep falling. The
towers keep falling.
Again. The plane.
The blast. The towers
keep falling. On TV,
on every channel I turn
to, the towers keep
falling / falling / falling.
I want to leave.
I want to see.
I don’t want to
see the towers
falling. Even when
the news anchor tells
me again. How do the
towers keep falling?
The towers keep
falling. My heart
drops within my
body. Another body.
The towers keep
f
a
l
l
i
n
g.
Donna J. Gelagotis Lee is the author of two award-winning collections, Intersection on Neptune (The Poetry Press of Press Americana, 2019), winner of the Prize Americana for Poetry 2018, and On the Altar of Greece (Gival Press, 2006), winner of the Seventh Annual Gival Press Poetry Award and recipient of a 2007 Eric Hoffer Book Award: Notable for Art Category. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals internationally, including Cimarron Review, Feminist Studies, The Massachusetts Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. www.donnajgelagotislee.com
Featured image Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
