The Stranger...
Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Nineteen year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had what was believed to be a normal day at UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday, according to one UMass official. He worked out at the gym and then slept in his single-unit room at the Pine Dale Hall dorm that night while “law enforcement officials were frantically scanning photos and video trying to identify him and his brother”.
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on
Twenty-two year old Pamela Rolon, a senior at UMass Dartmouth and a resident assistant at the Pine Dale Hall dormitory where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lived, said she has known him for the past year and finds it incredible that he played any role in the bombing. She said Tsarnaev dressed typically in sweaters and jeans and fit in easily on campus. She said even though she knew he came from Russia, he spoke English with hardly any trace of an accent.
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
“He studied. He hung out with me and my friends,” she said in a phone interview. “I’m in shock.” Watching television with her friends at UMass later in the week it became consensus “We made a joke like – that could be Dzhokhar,” she said. “But then we thought it just couldn’t be him. Dzhokhar? Never.”
You may never understand
How the stranger is inspired
“I think he’s Muslim, but not so religious,” Rolon said. “He’s a normal city kid.” She also said that he did not talk about Russian or international politics. “He never said anything about Russia versus the United States” –
It was then I felt the stranger
Kick me right between the eyes
Katie Horan, a sophomore at UMass-Dartmouth who lives in the Pine Dale Hall dorm, said the alarm went off around 7:45 a.m. telling everyone in the building to evacuate.
Lyrics in bold by Billy Joel
INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM “Bombing suspect attended UMass Dartmouth, where he spent Wednesday; friend shocked he could have any link to bombing” - By Sarah Coffey and Patricia Wen, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff