Cloud Scraper

poem

Peter W. Petschauer

Keywords:

9/11 terrorist attack, heroism, Howard Stein, mass casualties, patriarchy, poetry, psychohistory

With suggestions by Howard Stein

Repeat!
Repeat!
Repeat again!

The needle scrapes the clouds –
a response to the destruction of 9/11.
Taller than the skyscrapers around it –
visible for miles.
Even in the fog of downtown Manhattan –
it stands as testimony to innocent deaths of that day.

But it and its neighbors
tempt the gods with their arrogance –
maleness in steel, glass, and concrete,
all symbols of a patriarchy!

Already the ancient Greeks knew –
jealous gods upend Hubris’ foolish expressions.
Achilles,
quintessential hero of his time –
godlike in his mother Thetis’ fibrous armor.
Apollo guided Paris’ arrow to its weak spot.

Ignoring our mothers’ prescient concerns –
we moderns build
ever more audacious emblems of our maleness.
Surely they, too, will be torn asunder
by agents of other patriarchs.

Repeat!
Repeat!
Don’t learn!

Page 123

About the author

Peter W. Petschauer

Peter W. Petschauer, PhD, New York University, taught at Appalachian State University, 1968-2006. (Now a writer and poet.) Initially courses in European and Russian History, later women and children.

Several administrative positions.

Also chair of Appalachian’s faculty senate and then chair of UNC-System’s faculty assembly.

Now on two arts-related boards at ASU and on two boards of psychohistorical journals.

Books: Faustina. Ein freies Mädchen und eine gefangene Fürstin. Das einzigartige Paar auf dem Römerhof bei Erlstätt (Faustina. A free girl and a captive duchess. The unique pair on the Roman farm near Erlstätt), 2025;Was man so Alles lernt, (All the Things one Learns) 2024; In Troubled Times Beauty. Listen to Rarely Heard Voices (poetry), 2022; An Immigrant in the 1960s. Finding Hope and Success in New York City; Hopes and Fears. Past and Present (poetry); A Perfect Portrait, about a young female artist in 18^th-century Weimar; In the Face of Evil. The Sustenance of Traditions; The Father and the SS.