I Thought I Could Avoid It.

Jack Whitten, 9.11.01

Then I went to lunch. I walked away from Broadway to avoid the crowds and the nutcases. Walking in front of me on Wall Street was a woman holding a couple of those tiny American flags. Just as I was thinking that an over-the-shoulder shot would make for a snappy photograph she turned slightly and I saw that she was also holding a framed picture of someone she lost. Fuck. On my way back from lunch I came across a fire fighter in his dress blues at the intersection of Wall and Broad. He was standing there in a daze with a friend and I noticed that his coat was unbuttoned, accentuating how the body's cage drops in grief. It might have been 7 years ago for you and me, but not for these two. Not today.