Two Thousand Degrees

in memory of Scott Rohner

I only knew you, just you, one

guy who took the fall

when it heated up to about

two thousand degrees on the 103rd floor.

How can anyone begin to imagine that?

I was blocks away, I heard the terrible crash

that signified your doom.

I won't pretend I knew you

all that well, my ex-wife's first cousin.

Now I remember

a kid with a winning grin

jumping on the backyard trampoline

vying for the football with his brothers.

You were just starting out

at Cantor, straight out of school.

Well they say we're all connected

and somehow we all took a big fall

that stunning eerie lovely blue-sky day.

Anyway you're gone, completely gone now.

They've cleaned up the site

but nothing is restored, nothing,

not through our words,

not through our testimonials,

not through our sanctimonious

ceremonies and now

from few thousand degrees of

separation away

a survivor like me can only salute

your terrible absence.

And you know, this past year has

been tough but good for me,

personally, a lot of growth.

How is that fair? How is anything

fair anymore? Maybe it would've been

a good goddamned year for you too.