No Friendly Sky Anymore

(Acrostic Reading Through Procedure of Jackson Mac Low)

Now
do

Flashbacks
cries
Friends
Skies
human
ground
friendly
Covertly

Seas
skies
say

Acts
and
cry
garments
junior
terror
justice

© Paterika Hengreaves

Notes on this poem

No Friendly Sky Anymore

(2011)

The people of the West Indies do mourn with thee

We have watched from the islands of the Caribbean

Glued to television sets in disbelief

The September events

And now with trace of tears still lingering

We do remember

America

We do cry with you because these evil acts

Are for all mankind too

Our hearts do bleed at the loss

Inflicted by terrorists and their boss

These thoughts that you do read

Are real and shall be our lasting nightmare

To be haunted by flashbacks

Of nine-eleven

America attacked

By a gang of more than seven

We with gaping mouths and bulging eyes

Watched planes attacked buildings and towers

Amid the horrible cries

People trapped inside the inferno

With no hope of seeing tomorrow

As their helpless friends and kin looked

To the sky in horror

Yankees and all of us have had enough

Of this terrorist band parading across their beautiful

And noble land

Dressed in garments and wearing a human face

They plotted covertly to zap

The American race

To those families with fallen people

Elsewhere

And at ground zero

America will not stand

For another judgment error

So spoke Bush Junior

And Blair-ringing in

They vowed to hit back terror

In all its shades

By George!

America will attack back

And fight terror in every nook and cranny

And there shall be no cause for you

To murmur to Uncle Sam

Justice, fair play integrated

With all our forces’ might

For in God we put our trust

Because the cause is just

And right.

Paterika Hengreaves

(September2001/Barbados)