REMEMBER

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Flames, smoke, debris
filled the New York sky
on this September day.
I think my eyes deceive me.
It can't be happening.
This is my country.
This is my America.
Land of the free--maybe too free
If terriorist-manned planes can invade.
I hear the sirens, imagine the rumbles
As one by one
The melted steel plunges to the earth.
Ghosts of Pearl Harbor, Dresden, Magasaki
Rise, phantom-like before me
As I watch people run for their lives,
Screaming, weeping, fearing the unknown
As those two pillars sink to their deaths.
It is the end of innocence.
We must never forget.
We must always remember.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Today I saw the Phoenix beginning to rise
On that ravaged square of American soil.
A tattered pillar has been returned
A remembrance of that fateful day.
In the future, pools will reflect
New towers reaching skyward,
Visitors with grateful hearts, enjoying life
Will mingle with the silenced voices
On that sacred ground.
Renewal, revitalization, resilence
Will ring out on a new era.
The spirit of America will not be lost.
But we will never forget.
We will always remember.

(c) Barbara Deming, 2001/2009