SMOKE AT THE PENTAGON

Free-verse reflections and observations in remembrance of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

Using conversational language, Jules adopts the voices of 19 local children: Kelvin (age 5) and Delia (17) both report feeling the shock of the initial explosion without understanding what’s happened, while 8-year-old Michael thinks of his older brother, who would go on to Afghanistan in the attack’s wake and never come back. Karima, 13, responds to news that American Muslims have been attacked in response: “ ‘But we live here. I was born here,’ I say. / ‘You still need to be careful,’ Dad answers, / his voice low and sad.” Aside from one child hearing a mention of “charred bodies” from Dad, a first responder (“My mom touches Dad’s lips / with her fingers. ‘Shh!’ she whispers. / ‘The kids are listening’ ”), any violence or devastation remains out of sight, both in the poems and in Rácz’s somber views of diversely hued figures with downcast eyes. An author’s note explains that Jules was working as a school librarian in Arlington, Virginia, on 9/11 and that the stories are “composites drawn from personal experiences with students and friends.” Following two final poems that mention vows to rebuild, as well as describing the Pentagon memorial that opened seven years later, the author appends a complete list of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

A sad, subdued commemoration.