POEM BY: Anonymous
ARTIST STATEMENT: I’m not religious, so I was basically writing about my idea of what the “afterlife” is. I was tasked to write a persona poem about a certain historical figure, place, or object. I wanted to use the World Trade Center because I wanted to tell an elaborate poem about the lives that were lost and relate myself to the deceased in a creative and nihilistic way. The poem revolves around New York City and 9/11, which spawned a time when newcoming immigrants faced a lot of prejudice. So I kind of feel that, with the help of the illustration I provided, it may evoke some sense of realization of how some US citizens may take citizenship for granted, compared to others who might also live here who might not be as fortunate. We as some Americans don’t care about the bad things that happens to others; some of us treat history like a memory. Something that can’t be repeated again in the present day or in the future. We are ignorant to the fact that we still experience war, death, and prejudice. As the storyteller, I just wanted to present that, that maybe I just want to give up, that maybe a perfect world can’t be achieved.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
This photo was created by Prof. Lucas Kwong in collaboration with AI.
In this city, stood something tall
and yet, here you are
still standing strong.
How is that? Why is that?
Have you been built to replace us?
Because we’ve been demolished.
Out of nowhere, it was like there was no heaven.
No God. No Satan.
But none of it matters now.
We’ve seen it all.
Civilization and mankind are a mistake.
People only want war and destruction.
Rejection of peace.
It’s not even a tragedy anymore when a lot of people die.
That’s always been happening.
If you never knew them, there’s no reason to be sad, right?
We had dead mothers who never knew their own children.
Fathers left alone in the living
to simply wash away.
But we know that the unborn will have it better.
They’ll see something better.
They’ll be some place better.
Safer. Happier.
A positive alternative to life’s many sufferings.
Because it could be whatever they want it to be.
Because never being born, is perhaps true freedom!
The very point of life is to waste time.
Life IS a game.
Never existing (never having to experience this world at all)
is true freedom!
