Bomb Scare
Oh Lord God.
The Subject line in the e-mail
was a garble of characters,
and I didn’t recognize the sender’s name.
But the word “Bomb” exploded
from the alphabet soup of type
crawling like bugs across my computer screen.
“Didi!” I yelped, rocketing
out of my chair as if I’d been shot,
hurrying down to my co-worker’s cube.
Didi works with the emergency response staff,
so I thought of him first.
“Come here to my desk, please.”
I tried to sound calm but I could tell
he knew I was freaked by something.
Ever since 9/11 I take all this seriously,
especially working in a government agency.
“Send that to the security desk, Sandra,”
Didi told me, cool as an after-work drink.
He even looked like he was smiling,
as if he found it funny.
I know I shouldn’t be so scared,
but when you lose somebody you know
like I did at the Pentagon that day,
you don’t get over it so easy.