First published in 2004 by American poet Louise Glück, the long poem “October” does not claim or even seem to memorialize the attacks of September 11. Yet, her writing positions the lyrical instance at the extreme opposite of the traumatic epicentre, in the aftermath of the writing process. “October” sounds like a mournful Mahlerian lied in its singing the experience of loss and the very possibility of survival. The long poem questions to the letter and through the letter what it means to live in the temporality of the after. In this article, I purport to study how her poetics remains deeply grounded in today’s reality while simultaneously escaping and shunning referentiality.