by Ed Roberts
I was shown a picture
Of what used to be a building
As this man placed this gruesome scene
On the table in front of me he said
"This is Oklahoma"
I reached out and took his hand
Told him to close his eyes and I closed mine
Just for a moment he could see through my eyes
Not of my head but of my heart
A woman ambulance driver
Held a bleeding child in her arms
And could not put him down
Though she knew there were others
She could not leave his side
I said, "This is Oklahoma"
A man whose face and clothes
Were covered in his own blood
Was on his injured knees
Digging through piles of rock
With his bare hands
Trying desperately to see
If anyone else was still alive
"This is Oklahoma"
Rescue workers crawled into places
That could shift at any second
And bury them alive
Tired and exhausted themselves
They stood in line
Each waiting their own turn to go back.
"This is Oklahoma"
And from a place
They simply called "The Pit"
A mountain of a man emerged clinging to a toy
Because it was all he was able to find
And on his face covered with tears
Was written the true horror of this place
Yet he too went back to get in line
"Yes, this is Oklahoma"
I told the man that sat before me
"Do not look at this destruction
What was done here
To see the tragedy of what happened
You first have to see what was here before
But to truly see this place
We call Oklahoma
All you have to do
Is see what still remains"
" Now, this is Oklahoma"
Ed Roberts 5/01/95
(Taken from "A Poet's Last Stand" my first book.) |
