The morning ritual:
awaken, straighten
bed and self.
Turn on television.
Wash and dress.
Newsroom halts
to update news.
So, I stop to attend
feeling threatened
by what no one yet knows.
As newscasters speak
of smoking North Tower one.
They surmise a small plane
has hit the high-rise.
I know that cannot be true
with so much fire so fast.
There must be more fuel
than a small plane can carry.
And then, I see off to the side
a commercial jet in the view
of cameras set on the North Tower, one.
No commercial plane is allowed
on a flight path that veers
as this plane does to South Tower, two.
I watch the hit and feel the fear
wrapped in grief for what
I am about to see and hear.
Communication starts and stalls
among first responders to the call,
using analog instead of the new
radios for the crews.
Heroes rush in to certain death
to save those they can.
I cannot write of what I saw,
horrific images still so raw
they would gut me and cut me in two.
I ran with the people in the street
as I stood before my T.V.
I climbed the stairs with rescue crews
as I stood before my T.V.
I cried with the families searching lists,
posting photos on fences, falling to knees
as I stood before my T.V.
The silence of cleared skies across the country
allowed me to hear the beeps
of equipment buried deep
with those killed and waiting to be found.
I can hear them still.
I still before the sound.
Two towers fell that day
along with the truth
that foreign affairs decisions kill
not just soldiers but civilians, too.
That asbestos kills;
that air quality played its part
to destroy even more lives
of those who worked as civil servants do
to clean up the messes our decisions make.
And to take the fall
along with buildings that once stood tall.
Civil servants still stand tall for me
despite the crass thinking and perfidy
of the greedy few who withhold
what is needed and refuse taxes
fairly placed to create a world
free and safe for every member of humanity.
we rebuilt buildings; memorials, too.
Rebuilding that free and safe world?
Awaken and straighten. Always, stay tuned.
annarino writes 