Dillon Thomas Jones

nine

inside the teachers lounge at paddock road elementary school one
of the billowing twin towers on good morning america looks like
my mom hard shifting gears smoking a camel cigarette late for school

just after the second morning bell a plane the size of a horse fly
glides into the other tower mrs favors & principal mitchel gasp
but im not fooled by clumsy special effects fireballs like that

only happen in die hard why would those people jump if
mom says their hearts will burst before they survive the fall
no morning announcements mrs woodland turns on cnn

says theres been a terrorist attack on america terrorists are bad
people who hurt innocent people but were safe in nebraska
in fact president bush was on his way it was so safe shes crying

she cries the whole day we watch cnn says everything will be okay
only brown nosers tommy john & tabitha believe her todays
lesson is what links all americans big small black white etc

an opaque coil of tension strung through the lower belly that day
on the playground blacktop we played towers & terrorists
tommy john & tabitha played the two planes slash terrorists
i played the first tower smoking my mothers camel cigarette

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Dillon Thomas Jones is a writer living in Pittsburgh, PA. He holds a BA in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He writes poetry, fiction and cultural criticism about television, film and books. His first book of poetry, a study of frustration, will be published by word west press in early 2021. A 2021 Cave Canem Fellow, his work has appeared in Yemessee, The Indianapolis Review, Coal Hill Review and is forthcoming in The Iowa Review. He is currently at work on a memoir about growing up the adopted and black only son of a white single mother in Omaha, NE. Contact him at dillon.jones6@gmail.com.