El Corrido De Stanley Kunitz

Part 2 of 5

When Stanley landed with a thud
he wasn’t using one of those
fancy new parachutes,

no, siree, he was wearing
one of those WW2 issue parachutes
and, of course, the concrete of New York

was very hard much like the people of New York,
anyway, he’s standing on the ground
when the next plane hits.

“Hay golpes en la vida tan fuertes …”
he says with a pain deep in his heart.
He hates the sight.

Stanley’s eyes reflect the horror
like a pool of sewage water,
firefighters run in his eyes,

policemen try to police
the terror in their badges,
the buildings take their turn and burn.