Bikeman: #2

            Bikeman begins, as Tom is in his home not knowing that the September 11^th attacks will no longer be his future but soon become his present. Tom explains the emotion of the unknown. I thought that this first poem was very interesting because it explains his feelings right before he was informed about the attacks. This feeling of the unknown is a very scary concept because it forces you to realize that something that life altering can happen within a matter of seconds.  You can be doing one thing such as reading a book and within a minute, your entire life can be changed along with the lives of millions of other people. The story continues with Tom Flynn recounting his feeling of curiosity. He says, “Curiosity is a fearless companion. If this coming event were a mythical beast breathing fire from its nostrils, grasping at me with sharpened claws, my muse would not counsel caution nor guide me to a protected place but push me closer to the flames. My muse cannot see a difference between good fortune or ill. So without care or caution, we ride into this latest of life’s unanswered questions” (9). This feeling of curiosity overwhelms him and causes him to proceed towards the danger but not away from it. His curiosity overpowers his feelings of fear because every person seeks information and knowledge. Tom Flynn is curious about the unknown and dives into ground zero, as others would more commonly run away. As he approaches the towers, he explains what he sees such as papers falling from the sky as well as people. He compares the business documents falling from the sky as useless as dandruff dusting down. As he sees people falling, he mentions one woman who he watched fall from the towers. He explains his feelings towards his vision and he feels like “I am a witness to this and embarrassed. I am an intruder on the most private moment of her life: her death” (15).  This idea and perspective jumped out at me because it allows you to understand the circumstances of the attacks. He felt embarrassed because her death is not something that he should have seen, but something that should have happened much differently. This perspective causes the reader to contemplate those things that only a person who witnessed it with their own eyes would ever think about.