September 11, 2001 I was sitting in Kelly Handerek’s first year, theatre performance class. We were sitting on the floor, in some meditative sort-of-stay or maybe just talking, when Kelly came in and said, this is not verbatim, New York has been attacked, a plane hit one of the World Trade Towers. He sent us home. I am not sure I can remember the timeline, but when I got home, it seems to my memory, that the second tower was hit.

After taking that American Lit. class, America is a much more interesting place to me, especially in regards to how we, Canadians, react to America. But this is just another deep pain–like slavery or killing another President or Vietnam–that our allies have and because of our friendship, we bare a certain weight as well. I wonder how many years it will take before America consumes the pain and it is nothing but a time that poets revive.