Reading this gave me chills, I remember watching that live on TV. I was watching TV that afternoon when they had the breaking news. Good poem for a terrible time.
http://www.abctales.com/story/archergirl/the-falling-man-10-seconds-down
there was a programme on recently that looked at the 'American' feeling about the jumpers - in that suicide is seen as wrong in the eyes of God - this poem eloquently describes that conflicting emotion that must have gone through all of the minds of the people trapped.
It's funny before i watched the programme i had assumed that people saw the jumpers like i did - brave, but many Americans (interviewed on programme) saw the same action as cowardly.
This really made me think over the issue again - ty.
Juliet
Thanks to both of you for your comments. I watched it live from Arizona that morning in September, and I saw the recent programme from which I took the title; it haunted me for days. I have struggled since then to put into words the desperation they must have felt and the finality of the choices those poor souls had to make. The ones that never knew what happened were, in a sense, lucky. The ones that had to choose between jumping and burning were another thing, entirely... Thanks again.
What is so amazing about this poem is not only the way I can almost hear the whistling of the air past the ears of the soliloquist (is that a word?) and the demolition of heartbreak (- the losses that the dying have to bear -)... but also the colloquial tone mixed with the "dizzydrunk doing cartwheels shirt cracking the wind" beautiful poetry... Am so impressed by this. Made me cry.
Juliet