2014, Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press
The first person speaker in Mr. Nobody is an exhausted traveler in the weeks…months…years…after 9/11 changed the world he thought he knew.
from Mr. Nobody
Stop it! Don’t kill yourself.
The world is on fire you don’t know why,
everyone frantic, pushing to the windows.
No one recognizes you except the flames.
You’ve never been comfortable in this world.
You’ve never looked down.
You never stared through the glass walls.
It’s as if you have already disappeared,
your arms, your legs, your whole body.
In the heat. In the air.
But wait, don’t do it!
Be calm. Walk to the stairs.
How bad could it be?
Maybe someone knows what’s going on.
Maybe someone will save you.
Wait another minute before going out.
Something will…I mean,
it must. I can’t. Why is the window
a good…
Stop! she yells again, and you straighten
in your seat, the belt loose on your lap.
You look around, not knowing where you are,
where you have come from,
where you are about to touch down.
Your name.