GRASPING AT THE SMOKE OF 9/11

 A brief photo essay with words and photographs by David Imbrogno
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A spontaneous memorial for 9/11 in New York City

Briefly on 9/11,
the world was one.
Even newspaper headlines
from around the earth
proclaimed it.

But just as the flow of water
cannot be captured in a bucket,
oneness, is equally as elusive.

Might we have held on
to the oneness of 9/11 ?
Politically and socially, perhaps.
Spiritually, I don’t think so.
Oneness is like smoke.
It is impossible to grasp.

The smoke of 9/11
brought us all together.
Then, it did what smoke does.
It dissipated.

The smoke of 9/11
may be dispersed
but it is not gone.

The smoke of 9/11
has rejoined the wind.
The wind
that carries the smoke
of every war.
The wind
that carries the smoke
of every joyful campfire.
The wind
that now carries the smoke
and the ashes
of 9/11.

The wind carries
the joys,
the longings,
and the sorrows,
of every breath,
that every person
has ever breathed
throughout all of time,
including
the 2,819
who died,
on that
deceptively beautiful
autumn day.

I will always be haunted
by the photographs of people
hanging from, jumping from,
and crawling around
the gaping holes in the buildings,
hundreds of stories high.

There are somethings once seen,
that cannot be unseen.

There are somethings once known,
that cannot be unknown.

Bob Dylan’s song chants the answer,
The answer is
“blowin’ in the wind.”

As we breathe,
the ever present wind
picks up our every breath
and merges it
with those of
everything
and everyone
who has ever lived.

In that way at least,
we will always be one.

© 2011 Dave Imbrogno and CowGarage.com, All Rights Reserved