NO ACCIDENT

The way things work
The way they fit together
To become these things
A blade of grass
so erect and green
Seagull feathers
Hollow bricks
Light bulbs
Tall buildings
Hemangioma
A stem cell
Or a DNA molecule
I know this all
Is no accident

- By Anthony Buccino
From ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
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QUANTUM LOOP

Can I leap now?
Al, why haven’t I leaped?
Isn’t my work here done?
What does Ziggy say? Al?
Al? Can you hear me, Al?
Why haven’t I leaped?
Didn’t I do what Ziggy
says I should? Al?
I came years ago
and wrote down what I saw,
what I saw before it changed.
And now I scripted aftermath.
Wasn’t all that why I was here, Al?
Can you ask Ziggy for me?

- By Anthony Buccino
From ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY
A post-Sept. 11 poem.
Quantum Leap
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

NEW HERE

Those young men joked
in our evacuation drill
about how they’d tear
down the stairs.
They must be new here.
They thought it was funny.
We queued & stepped
carefully down eight flights
& met at our spot
behind the fence
in the parking lot
while behind us
others checked
the closets & the stalls
& these two guys said if
it were a real emergency
they’d be like
that Seinfield
guy and knock the old
& infirm out of the way
‘til they were safely outside.

But these new guys don’t know
when the towers were twice as high
as the skyline & and then they weren’t.
On this side of the river,
we all got out okay that morning

- By Anthony Buccino
From ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

PEOPLE AT THE RAILING

Seems to be more people
than usual
standing at the railing
staring across the river

Can’t blame them you know
not only a beautiful view
but I know
many of the strangers
who visit here
like me
are looking at the shadow
of things that used to be.

Four years doesn’t make
the sadness go away
or the memory disappear.
We all still see
what used to be,
there, across the river.

As sure as Christmas
comes in December
And Easter in the spring
Every sunny September
we’ll remember that day.

Some might think
it sacrilegious
to carry on, and others
say it’s sacrilege not to.
For all who stare
across the sea, I see
the tall shadows
wash over you

- By Anthony Buccino
From ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

Forget-Me-Not
An Unordinary Day
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A FOLLOWING BLUE BEAM

In my back yard a blue beam
streaks to the sky
and ends at a glowing star

The light starts below the tree line
somewhere distant and fades away
swallowed by the summer night sky

We walk on into the evening
watching uneven sidewalks
and curbs hidden in the dark
eyes on the ground ahead
forgetting completely the beam
for the moment at hand
and then a breeze or something
stirs us to look up again
between the neighbors’ trees
and we see again that light
twelve miles away
lighting someone else’s way
from here to eternity
forever etched in someone’s mind
the heart wound never healed
the motherless child, the childless mother
and others whose heart song
is carried by a following blue
beam streaking into the sky

- By Anthony Buccino
From ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
An Unordinary Day
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