this is the day
when people ask
“where were you
when the sky went black
when we lost our innocence
when the world collapsed
in fire and smoke?”
it is the first of such
days for me
i know it shan’t
be the last
my mother’s father was born
the year the great war ended
her mother was alive
when wall street fell
my father’s parents
were children of the great depression
who remember peal harbor
grandpa nearly died
in a war hospital
my parents tell me
about jfk and the shots fired
mom saw the second shooting
live on tv
as for me
i was three weeks distant
from my fourteenth birthday
plodding through algebra
at a snail’s pace
while downstairs mom
checked the news
i don’t remember how it happened
but i saw one tower fall
then the other crumble
into dust
no more ‘top of the world’
where mom had stood
i hardly knew
what those buildings were
but now they were gone
hollowly my mother
echoed that refrain:
“the world trade center is gone”
we held each other
on the recliner couch
sobbing in fear and disbelief
eight years in the future
i don’t think anyone
really understands
what happened
that sunny september day
heroes were born
to die the next minute
‘hate’ for the first time was real
and came with the price tag
of 3,000 souls
for a few months
we were a country
bound together by grief
then blame and greed and power
crept in unawares
and none of us was
really sure anymore
what was happening
or why because
we’d let ourselves
forget
in eight more years
the memory will be
further yellowed
until it becomes
just another day again
like pearl harbor
or armistice or normandy
days dusty scholars
drill us on in history class
but few remember
perhaps forgetting
can help us here forgive
but a wound uncleaned festers
poisoning the body quietly
so recall what courage won us
what love bought us
what justice brings us
and mercy gives us
and remember, remember,
remember
