Where Were You When...

In the darkest corner of K-2,
the bar with the cigar-store Indian outside,
the owner keeps a python.
Somehow he gets VH-1
on the TV high on the wall, and we could be
in a mini El Paso or perhaps Tomillo.
Then the pictures show two towers,
and smoke and panic, with a siren-soundtrack,
as the cable goes CNN to
protests in Spanish
that isn't Mexican.
Until it all goes quiet,
while we figure out it isn't the latest
movie release from Madrid's favourite
Californian.

The background conversations are hushed,
when people are brave enough to talk again.
In three years we'll watch train crash TV,
but in Spanish, while the snake
foregoes his lunch for a second time.