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By Kim Pearson ’78
Posted Novembr 26, 2002

September 10, 2002

Call me Ostrich.
Tomorrow is a day I do not want to remember.
I am a journalist who does not want to read the newspaper.
I cannot tear myself away.
The terror tapes are rising in my head.
I do not need to be told to remember;
There has been no opportunity to forget.
I can share the story of where I was and what I did But why would it matter? I was not in the rubble. I am not ground into the Fresh Kills landfill, or where ever it is they took the pulverized remains of nearly 3,000 who were loved, or loathed, or little known until the moment and the months of the murder and the martyrdom and the missing and the mourning.
Call me Ostrich.
Tomorrow is a day I do not want to remember.
I will say this much.
Tomorrow for me is no "Patriots' Day.'
Tomorrow is the day of the slaughter
Of people from 80 nations.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of Reason.
The dogs of war are loose
Even as generals try to get them back on leash.
I am raising a son who dreams of wearing a uniform. I have worked with the friends of Daniel Pearl. I have held hands that held hands that dug through the Pile. I have sat with the children of the Lost and the Found. My mail is the mail that they test for anthrax. I do not need to be told to remember; There has been no opportunity to forget.
Call me Ostrich if you will, but know this: She does not really bury her head in the sand She lays low when her nest is threatened. To blend in or better view her enemy She runs - she runs fast But when faced with a fight She spreads her wings in warning And kick - hard! Peck and bite, She uses any means necessary, any means necessary.
Call me Ostrich
I am a journalist who does not want to read the newspaper
There is no distance from this story.
I gave myself over that long day that has not ended.
CNN and George Bush can not have what is left.
Tomorrow is a day you do not want me to remember.
Tomorrow is a day that will not let me forget.

Kim Pearson is a professor of English at The College of New Jersey.

To submit a poem, email us at paw@princeton.edu