"9/11 Photo Exhibition" - P.C. Bodh

Thanks to Robert Clark, Richard Dew,
Gulana Samoilova, James Natchwey
And Julien Daniel, who replayed
The fateful September eleventh here,
In the heart of Delhi, in a way
Nobody could do till now –
Not the telecoverage,
Not the journalists’ emoted words,
Not the latest modes of communication.

Courtesy World Press.
I could see the Zero Ground,
Even when the civilization twins
Stood aglow in the morning sun,
Beaming hope and prosperity
To their billions' strong parentage.

I could see their structural stillness
In the face of the devastation;
I could see the callousness
Of the dehumanized humans
In the unemoted moves of the machines
Fallen in the hands of the monstrous masters.

I could see the blue of the New York skies
As the ominous black
Of fuel burst, rose from the towers,
As the airplanes rammed
Into the twins’ bodies,
Filling their bowels with explosives.

I could imagine life within the Twins,
Within their grayish marvels of prosperity,
The survival in an inside inferno,
Uncertainty of survival when thrown
Out of a 100th story window
Or a plunge into the emptiness --
Embracing the certainty
Of the uncertain, in the face
Of death’s momentous finality.

I could empathize with the one
Falling along the tower's black panels,
Headlong, arms up, legs in sprint mode;
I could empathize  with the three
Speeding in their eternal flee,
Away from ignition and explosion --
Flights along the towers
On the wings of gravity –
The timely Rescue Force.

In the exhibits
I discovered order
Against the decree of chaos and cacophony
Against the perpetration of disorder.

In these visual masterpieces
I discovered a hope for humanity
The presence of the Ever Great faith --
The faith of Mutually Dependent Existence.

The faith capable of facing
A thousand September Elevens
Without losing the human nature
Without losing the quiet dignity and poise.