Huey, Amorak

English

Scholarworks@GVSU

30 Sept. I I, zoo4 For a while, in the newsroom, we stopped using words like "bomb" and "slaughter" in sports headlines. We complained less about micro-managing editors, weak coffee, system crashes. incompetence in the composing room; we pitched in and made our deadlines. We felt like, no, not quite a family, but a team, at least. We looked around and were glad: no one in this room believed in anything with enough fury to shave his earthly body clean and plunge us all headlong into the milky fire. It was an exciting time. We did not pity the planet. we felt renewed with possibility. knowing all the best love stories have a backdrop of crisis, calamity. cholera, oh. how we felt proud we were the first to see this date as the proper noun it would become, we were responsible for its becoming. we were patriotic because we didn't flinch at the risen cost of gasoline. Resilient. we kept the Friday Doughnut Club alive-to do otherwise was to let someone else win-all we had to do was wait for time to pass, for a holiday, even a somber one, t a c f, b 0 1 1 b tl (J "' b 0 0 0 a d :  l l l  t h e  k i n d  m a r k e d  w i t h  a  s l o w  p a r a d e  a n d  b l a c k  c r e p e  p a p e r ,  t o  b e  b o r n  i n  t r a g e d y ' s  m u c k .  T h r e e  y e a r s ,  t u r n s  o u t .  f o r  m o s t  o f  u s ,  w h o  m a d e  l o v e  a n d  w a r ,  w h o  h a d  b a b i e s  i n  j u n e  o r  m i s c a r r i e d  o n  T h a n k s g i v i n g .  f o o t b a l l  o n  T V  d o w n s t a i r s  a n d  o u r  f u t u r e  b l e e d i n g  i n t o  a  c o l d  t o i l e t  o n e  p u r p l e  c l o t  a t  a  t i m e ,  o u r  b o d i e s  h e l p l e s s  w i t h  c r a m p s .  T h e r e ' s  m o r e  t h a n  o n e  a n n i v e r s a r y  t o d a y .  T w e n t y  y e a r s  a g o  i n  l e i c e s t e r ,  E n g l a n d .  b e f o r e  t h a t  M o n d a y ' s  f i r s t  c u p  o f  c o f f e e  w a s  g o n e ,  s o m e o n e  u n l o c k e d  D N A ' s  i n n e r  c h a m b e r ,  o p e n i n g  t h e  d o o r  o n  t h e  u n i q u e  s e l f  w r i t t e n  i n  t h a t  k n o t t e d  h e l i x ,  t h e  d o u b l e  s t r a n d  t h a t  d e t e r m i n e s  g u i l t  o r  i n n o c e n c e ,  t h a t  d e c i d e s  b e f o r e  b i r t h  w h e t h e r  w e  a r e  c a p a b l e  o f  l i v i n g  i n  t h e  f i r s t  p l a c e  o r  o f  m e e t i n g  d e a t h  w i t h  t h e  a n g r y  w o r d  o f  g o d  b u r n i n g  l i k e  j e t  f u e l  o n  o u r  t o n g u e s .  A m o r a k  H u e y  3 1  

Sept. 11, 2004

http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gvr/vol34/iss1/8

Sept. 11, 2004

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