Abner and Jeremy poke
around a hole they’ve found
in a vacant lot.

Jeremy says,
what used to be here?
I don’t remember much about it.

Dunno, says Abner.
Maybe a post office? There are
a lot of flags and messages
on the fences.

You’re an idiot,
retorts Jeremy. They don’t
keep holes where post offices were,
they rebuild them. It’s not like
post offices aren’t a dime a dozen,
anyway. Look at how many there are.
You can’t walk ten blocks without passing one.

Well, I don’t know, says Abner. Looks like
some government thing. It’s been a while
anyway, it seems, from the look of it,
so who could know for sure?
It’s a big hole, though.

That it is,
says Jeremy.
That it is. Deep one.

Eh.
Someone will put something up on it,
land’s not cheap and leaving it empty
won’t be an option.

Pity, shrugs Abner.
We could use a little light, some more space,
a few less buildings.
All you see is buildings these days.

I hope it’s a good one, says Jeremy.
Something to look at, maybe some nice apartments?
A school maybe?

Not likely, says Abner,
nobody wants to build a good home
for anyone anymore
unless they’ve got money and a lot of it.

Eh,
they both say,
wait and see what they build.
A good bet we won’t like it.

it has left a great big emotion haul has it not ?
what was there was good enough. why did it have to become a hole , whatever on this earth for !!!!!!!

Yeah, I like it! Exploring the question of what is missing, and what needs to be added to make their world complete? Answer could be: Nothing! It just is. Plant some trees for heaven's sake. Other question of course,: what was dug up?

@ butterflyz: The flags and messages on the fence ought to be a clue as to what was there before.

Oh.

ground zero?

I like this...

I like this...any signifigance to their names?

ground zero?

ground zero?

ground zero?

I was thinking of Ground Zero.

Abner and Jeremy showed up in my work not too long ago. There's a whole series of their conversations going on. No particular significance to their names; that's just what they chose to call themselves.

sorry for my echoing commentssssssssssssss

I like the conversational flow of this piece, Tony. I think the first stanza throws the poem off a bit -poking in a hole reads like the hole is smaller than the two of them. Perhaps:

Abner and Jeremy peer
into the large hole they’ve found
in the vacant lot.

The Ground Zero hole or its remnants would be reasonably large. In fact the largeness and depth is commented on in the poem. Good performance piece.

L.

good point L

They aren't poking in a hole. They're poking around a hole. It's a deliberate minimization.

counterpoint

just as they 4get what was there

Only the word "retort" bothers me. Technically it's entirely accurate but it seems a bit stiff.

To me Abner and Jeremy, they are the future generation. It bring to mind the civil rights movement and what marchers had to go through. Even though it happened in the fifties and sixties how soon the new generations forget. So the piece is written placing characters Abner and Jeremy in future time and we are reading fiction. What happened in the pasted is the nonfiction part and that was left out. The question here is how soon do we forget since there are a lot of flags and messages still on the fences. The answer ground zero is, of course ground zero and any one asking what this is about is forgetfulness to soon.