The News
       

At the launch site in Florida
the whooping and clapping stopped,
stunned into silence or Oh my God—
hands frozen this far apart in disbelief.
Mesmerized, a boy in a classroom watched
the replays; so close to the TV
he saw his own face in the fireball.
On the west coast a man looked up
at a skyscraper falling towards him—
no, it was only the clouds moving.
In another country a table of men
drank wine to celebrate; "Goliath
tripping on his own sword," one said.
In Chicago, I was delivering packages,
about to enter a revolving door
when a woman took off her Walkman
and said to me, "The shuttle blew up."
I stopped and looked up, saw the usual
blue sky with a few roving clouds.
Nothing falling or failing, just a plane
high above the buildings heading down
west to the airport. All those believers
putting up trays, fastening seat belts,
probably still unaware of the big news.

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Copyright © 2019 Matthew Murrey All rights reserved
from Bulletproof
Jacar Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission