Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Monument

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Monument

for Wallace Stevens

I

Among 58,000 lost,

I, too, couldn’t find myself

in the glare of the black granite from my phone

II

Yusef’s three minds

Like the trinity

War’s fathers, sons, and even ghosts

III

Flags burned beneath the twins:

Here lie mugs and magnets for patriots.

IV

A confederate and a union soldier

are one.

Arthur Ashe and a confederate soldier

are never one.

V

I do not know from which to profit,

The beauty of rape and incest

or the miscarriages and abortions.

The violation

or just after.

VI

Fire filled the lanky cross

with stained glass.

The shadowy basement

crossed by four girls

Where secrets

always seem to linger.

VII

O May Lin of Ohio

Why did you not imagine a visitor’s center?

Do you not see how a history class

could teach foreigners

about personal sacrifice?

VIII

I know Japanese accents

and empty, unfarmed lands;

But I know, too,

That the black man knows

what they know.

IX

When Flight 93 flew out of sight,

It found the edge

of a patriot’s courage.

X

At the sight of John Lawson

denying the white greed,

Tuscarora warriors

cry out for autonomy.

XI

He surfed the internet -

an NSA breach.

Once, a tweet leaked him,

In that he mistook

The security of democracy

for privacy.

XII

The money is moving.

The black granite must be surviving.

XIII

There is humanness in her humanity.

Faces burning

and continue to burn.

But Malala returns

to her classroom.