21 grams

It brings me no pleasure to learn of your loss and pain.
I want to say more but I can't seem to resurrect what has long been soaking in apathy - the safest place to lay to rest thoughts, feelings, hope and compassion (in a world where nobody really "love's". Not beyond the words, anyway)
this is where I found that nothing matters because we are fools to think that anybody - even our own flesh and blood will stand behind us.
Any minute they will turn. It may seem as there is no reason, or that their minds and hearts were poisoned by someone else... but there's always the bottom line factor.
The devotion to getting and having and/or protecting and keeping money or "ends".
The person that has more in pocket seems to have less in their heart.
No matter how much "love and loyalty" exists between family, friends, lovers ... everything
is only worth it's weight in gold, so to speak.
And last time I checked, the human soul only weighs 21 grams.

In honor of the 5 year anniversary of 9/11

Yes I know it's a couple days late but consider I wrote and sketched this 10 years & 11 months before "9/11" actually happened. I had just turned 21.
I never put these two works together until 2001. Although I did them within days - weeks of eachother I never made the connection. There is only one person in the drawing yet, the poem speaks of many.

I titled it: "Who Were They" because at the time I wrote it I had no idea who these people were. Whose story flowed from me onto paper effortlessly and without pause.
I would ask anyone that would take the time to read it what their interpretation was asking , "who were they?"

All those years prior 2001 there was no right or wrong answer. I heard a lot of interesting takes on it ranging from, the lost city of Atlantis to the Vietnam war.
The only thought I had was that I had to include: "who, where, when, why, what and how"

After rereading it many times I concluded that each reference to "they" isn't necessarily about the same "they" in each and every verse while the entire piece is obviously about a collective event that they and "they" all seperately played a part in, so to speak.

Have I lost you yet? Welcome to the mind of Mel!
(I analyze therefore I am)

Since 9/11 I've brought this out to some of my friends and family that had given their opinions all those years ago and they, like me, get a little chill from it.
My brother also pointed out that the man in the drawing kinda resembles Rudy Giuliani.

Who Were They?
© Melinda Lantz-Theissen Marinko 1990

I wonder what it was that started
As their faces filled with fear?
And why it was that they were parted
From those they held so dear?

I wonder why it happened this way
The lives twisted around?
And who it was that would have to pay
The people on the ground?

I wonder how they all turned out
Those souls lost in the crowds.
Or what it was that had filled them with doubt?
The faces in the shrouds.

I wonder where they could be right now?
They’ve hidden from the rain.
Or when they said they've made a vow
To never live in vain?

I wonder who led them all away
On to a safer place?
And where it was they fell to pray?
The ones who fell from grace.

I wonder if they plan to come back
To face what’s left behind?
And why it was that the evil pack
destroyed all it could find?

© Art and verse original works of
Melinda Marinko (formerly Lantz-Theissen)
Created in October 1990

A Van Down by the River!

I used to live in a van down by the river until they posted this sign: