by Howard Winn
Steve Rannazzisi, during a panel for the “The League” in August, apologized on Tuesday for fabricating a story about escaping from the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. NY Times, September 16, 2015
I was in the building when the first plane
crashed but escaped before the second
fireballed into offices and the hallways
down the many stairs fleeing from the
stock brokers’ cubicles as if escaping
the devils suddenly released upon
the Big Apple in a story told over and
over again even though I knew it was
all a lie of self-aggrandizement so
often I began to believe the falsehood
myself as if creating a forged memory
could make it into the truth although
now caught out in this counterfeit
story I will humbly acknowledge
my dishonest story and beg forgiveness
so that I may continue my lucrative
career in endorsing well-paying products
and pointless services where truth
can be so inconvenient in the market place.
Howard Winn’s fiction and poetry, has been published recently by such journals as Dalhousie Review, Taj Mahal Review (India), The Long Story, Cold Mountain Review, Antigonish Review, New Verse News, Chaffin Review, Thin Air Literary Journal, and Whirlwind. His B. A. is from Vassar College. He has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford University. His doctoral work was done at N. Y. U. He has been a social worker in California and currently is a faculty member of SUNY as Professor of English.