Olympus Shook

(Sept. 11, 2001)

Even at Noon, dishonored Dian kept
Her crescent vigil [1] in the stricken air.
Bravely the goddess sailed, though she wept:
Bright pearl defiled by terrorism’s tear.

Still poured the smoke and blotted out the sun
As Pandemonium relished the rape:
A maid besmirched, her trauma just begun
And at nightfall the stars on horror gape.

Even Mars blushes, champion of War,
To see his rules so flouted and transgressed,
His red reflection in the dire downpour,
His fiery countenance in peace-garb dressed.

End-times upon us, the Apocalypse
Unfolds, when day to dusky sackcloth turns:
The Brooklyn skyline shadowed in eclipse,
While smeared with soot, downtown Manhattan burns.

But Dian is a huntress, arrow-armed,
And swift as lightning has her dart dispatched,
Avenging innocent humanity harmed
On demons from Inferno's horrors hatched.

This day forever lives in infamy:
September the 11th, Two Thousand One,
A worse deed yet of foul atrocity
Than that vile act of 1941.

Today these other kamikazes plunged
Into America’s heart, the bloody gash
Of which still flows where souls in anguish lunged
From towering windows and the choking ash.

Though on the West Bank, thousands cheered the act,
The Promised Land recalls the mighty blow
God made through Joshua, with solemn pact
To make a rubble heap of Jericho. [2]

For terror-makers everywhere shall learn,
As did the rebels by the Lord beset,
That fires of righteous fury fiercely burn
And Goodness is more terrifying yet.

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[1]      On Sept. 11, 2001, the moon was still very visible at 1.30 pm in the afternoon. She represents Diana, goddess of virginity and of the hunt.

[2]      Joshua 6:2