i sit at a window
in the restaurant
on the 20th floor of my nyc hotel
    cold, february night
    snow piles in gutters below
    frozen streets reflect homeward headlights

i look down on the 9/11 memorial park
    two black pits
    outlined in white lights
    location of the former towers
    fountains off
    barricaded grounds empty

to eat asparagus soup and salmon salad
here at the edge of this sacred space
where thousands died
united in one single, horrific, vaporizing crush
of steel and concrete
sobers
unsettles

it's a lovely restaurant
but how do i "dine"
overlooking columbine,
pearl harbor,
auschwitz?

i eat because i'm alive
and paying for it

i raise my glass
of gin and ashes

Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.