Poetry: Putting our dog down on 9/11

In the towers:
We were there and we weren't
burning, bleeding, stomping,
stomping, being stomped on, bruising,
bursting, falling, falling
through one hundred
layers of
horrid
death

In the streets:
We were there and we weren't
staring up through paper blizzards,
breathing smoke and ash and weeping
we were seeing but not seeing, not believing
it was so, could not be so,
but it was so,
yes, and ever after
it was so, yes
it was so

At the veterinarian's:
In the clinic far away a radio
blatted what we heard but could not hear
could not imagine
not believe —
as a doctor, trembling,
trembling, brought his touch
of kindly death and gently
put our darling down.

Grayce Scholt is a retired English professor from Mott College who wrote art reviews for the Flint Journal. Her book of poetry, Bang! Go All the Porch Swings, is available online from Amazon and from Pages Bookstore in downtown Flint. A personal narrative of the poet's life in Europe in the early 1950s, Vienna, Only You, is available from the author at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .