Peggy Heinrich

Out of the Blue

After the towers fell, a friend in New York's Stuyvesant Town peered through her window. The smoking towers were visible. Minutes later, when she looked again, both were gone.

bright September day
a woman's voice on the phone
"Do you sell gas masks?"

At the end of the month, my daughter arrived from the West Coast, anxious to visit Ground Zero.

on fences, on walls
head shots of the missing -
on the ground, sooty leaves

throat and eyes burning
I wait for her to finish
her roll of film

for many days
startled by the sound of a plane
my uneven heartbeat