September 11, 2004, 8:10 am EST,

(in loving memory of S.I.P.O. and reserve Major
John William Perry, J.D., my dear friend of 17 years.)

three years since you took my best friend,
a burning cauldron of steel and concrete, shards of glass
twisting into the sky; winds blowing from the bottom,
a bellows of debris and smoke and detritus and blood
the chimneys collapse upon themselves, trapping all within,
in a deamonic maelstrom of broken lives and hatred.

He ran there chasing after another friend who overslept, I think
and another inside,
a broken cell call 8:45 our last knowledge
of the man who would save the world;
Libertarian police special investigator, lawyer
for prostitutes, volunteer domestic violence protector,
defiant soul, brilliant spirit whose true
depiction escapes even poetry,
lost for wanting to help his friends…

one of 2300 or so, an eyeblink; molecules combined
my heart still broken, angry, confused, defiant, hurt
like yours, belligerent to easy cognition, fearless to criticize
I hate my country for taking its finest, you
and your working brothers and sisters, for doing anything
which might tempt another to plan such a horrible fate
for even insanity has some lingering truth left within,
and the country I love, great Father of all that I am
should never be known as a motivator for such horror.

Let us not sing God Bless when we remember, perhaps
Amazing Grace that we should be delivered from our loss,
the families broken upon our hands, the future to be rebuilt
let us never forget, yes, but let us move forward in peace
built upon the lessons we have been taught at gods fingertips
and mortal insanity, never to heroize the tyrant nor the evil,
tears upon our shoulders and cheeks sluicing, passion reignited
let us fight for freedom,
forgive trespasses, and the trespass against us,
learn not more hatred, but proper understanding,
christian victims we say we are, deliver us from evil.

You were my country’s very best example,
you were NEVER afraid to think
what might be horrific to say, to incite,
to openly teach that easy ideals
lead to tyranny, slip the grasp upon the truth.
You angered me beyond belief,
tortured my moments at times,
made me squirm, lash out in irritation, taught me well,
Dr. Gestalt, you always made me think to the very best of my ability.
What is worse, you asked of me through chiding, to offend,
to be an iconoclast, or to prevent destructive ignorance?

In memory of good citizen Perry, missing
my beloved dear friend, lawyer, police officer,
Libertarian advocate for freedom, wisdom,
the defenseless, the hated, the ugly, the lost,
and the beautiful, extremely difficult and
supremely defiant understanding of hard truth.

jrwv September 11, 2004.