Nine Eleven O’One

I’m sure all Americans who were adults, even children on September 11, 2001 remember the horror of that September day. Ten days later I was on a plane from Tucson to Seattle and the images of buildings toppling and people throwing themselves into the air were fresh in my mind. Could it happen again? When? Where? How would it feel to be the sacrifice to that terror. This is the poem I wrote while on the plane to Seattle. On the twenty-third anniversary, I am wrapped in the emotions I felt that day.

Billowing palisades, pewter airfalls

            Cascade in slow motion

                        Overflowing the fountain of commerce

                                    Gracefull and grotesque

Soft tarnished silver clouds

Enfold futures lost

                        Spewing them

Into a bright Manhattan morning

Elegant plumes tumble gently one over another

            Carrying tattered remnants of lives

                        Ripping spirits from bodies

                                    Turning their shells to ash

Is there a torture more sublime

            Moment by moment terror

                        Smelling the hot acrid breath of death

                                    Approaching their prison in the sky?

Does hope flee quickly

            Or does it leak slowing

                        From the corners of their eyes

                                    As the dusk of life turns to night?

Written September 21, 2001 on a plane from Tucson to Seattle.

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