A Grandview Poem by Edmund Davis Quinn

High school cross country,17, doing Indians up Grandview Hill, High school cross country,17, doing Indians up Grandview Hill, Skillman, NJ, September,1 991, brilliantly clear day.

In the front of the line jogging, in the back of the line sprinting to the front, interval work.

The top of the grandest hill in Montgomery. Under us, Johnson and Johnson, Skillman, maker of Depends and Baby Shampoo. In the distance the 2 Turnpike Towers of East Brunswick, NJ, Exit 9. Far out in the distance only visable on a very clear day, the 2 black towers over 1,000 feet high the World Trade Center, over 50 miles away in New York City.

Weekends, drives with parents, up to New York. Around the oil refinieries of Elizabeth and Newark, two towers in the distance through the Bayonne Bridge, shimmering in the light. Reminded that this will be a day for New York, of museums, often the American Museum of Natural History, of learning of fun. Of my mom and dad beaming with enjoyment, of IMAX, maybe to go to Uno's on Columbus.

September,2001, Claremont, CA … Brilliantly cool late summer morning, couch surfing after a weird summer. Awoken at 8am, the two towers fallen into dust. Thousands dead, millions/billions wounded in the heart, spirit, trust, fright. The southern gateposts of the great city of America gone.

A city shattered, a nation shattered, a world shattered. Willing to help, to take the grandview and rebuild the city, the heart, the spirit, the will, the trust.

Lost in yells of a 'Patriot' act, wars if Afghanistan and even Iraq.

I wish we took the grandview.