[Newspoetry] Durango Report: New York, New York

[Mike Lehman]

The tragedy reaches across the nation
Across the fruited plain
And the purple mountains' majesties
To Durango where the biggest worry normally
Is the occasional rabid bat
The manager at the motel where I stay
Has a sister in New York
Note that I use the present tense
For three days she didn't know
"Every terrorist act that has happened in New York, she has escaped,"
And so far it remains true
Although the reason she personally resides in Durango is
"because of the fact that [in New York] everybody kills everybody,"
Yet this was somehow
So different than the retail murder
That Americans have come to expect
In the big city
Strangely enough
We as a nation now wish it on others
Who just wish they will be as lucky as her sister