Some People Did Something
On Rep. Omar’s reducing the 9/11 terrorist attacks to “Some people did something”
Some people swallowed towers,
kept ashes on their bones,
saw steel like fainting flowers,
or called to busy tones.
Some people heard the sound
when windows turned to sand.
Some never left the ground.
Some never got to land.
Some people never crossed
again those fields of death.
Some people hold the lost
in music, arms, or breath.
Author of In the Dead of April and Let Us Go, J.M. McBirnie is a poet and translator whose works can be found in such publications as Whistling Shade, The Daily Caller, and The Jewish Literary Journal.
Powerful imagery and creative use of language that makes you think. I particularly liked the line the in the second stanza where you say, “Some never left the ground” (an obvious reference to ground zero), “some never got to land” (those on board the planes which were used as missiles).” A good example of how brevity and understatement can pack a punch.
Good Morning! I like the concept of changing the subject of “some people” from the perpetrators to the victims! Very empowering.
Your poem speaks volumes. My thanks to you for picking up on the insidious and insulting language used by a representative in our national government. She should, in my opinion, be immediately removed for this and other similar remarks. Are the people who elected her deaf, dumb and blind? Perhaps they are illegals who have infested that area and are now casting votes?
Thankfully, Rep. Omaar does not represent me.
Sally, the plain fact is that Minnesota has always been a politically stupid state. Look at the progressivist garbage that Minneapolis has foisted upon us: Harold Stassen, Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone, and Walter Mondale belong the most prominent. Ilhan Omar is merely the latest in a long line of left-liberal idiots.
Don’t forget Garrison Keillor!
Two thoughts, Sally: Stupidity has never been a cause for removal from office; and yes, the people who elected her are exactly as you suggest they are. Democracy is not always what it’s cracked up to be.
Well done: you made a powerful poem out of a statement by a crass, ignorant fool.
Excellent poem. Outstanding. Should be sent out to the pundits.