I wrote this poem about a week after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. It describes the never-ending battle between two forces, neither good nor evil. They are opposites but they are also the same.
Two cards dealt by fate,
Paired devices in a chanceful game.
Why do they gamble with innocent lives?
The diamond, still rough, and the club, absent of shame.
A lover of money and a trader of souls,
Juxtaposed;
enemies competing for similar goals
Two freedoms voiced under the banners of faith
A binary of ideals converged at the tangent
Are these the symbols of a world still forming?
The cross of gold and the black crescent moon,
The phrenetic and the fanatical,
Contiguity;
believers in the same ancient idol.
Two energies forged by the gods
A polarity of latent direction
Will the immovable object meet the irresistible force?
Eastern resurrection faces western insurrection
The phoenix and the eagle in the twilight of power,
Osculation;
barbarians of the same hour.
Two battles fought by sentient beings (in theory!)
Coupled semaphores of distress.
Can any be the victor of such bloody battles?
Both commit to justice, neither will confess.
Blood on the stars and stripes, blood on the half moon,
Analogous;
all humanity facing the same impending doom.
Collin Mullane
In Memory of all those who died
11 September 2001
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