THE DAY THE TOWERS FELL
ODE TO 911

Watching the screens and hearing the screams
I remember thinking "Thank God I'm not in New York."
I remember the shock and awe at seeing the fall
Of gigantic monuments to commerce and prosperity
People running from fluffy white clouds of dust and
smoke
Like the marshmallow man in the GhostBusters movie
Some were covered in grime and some were out of time
As they waited too late to escape
Some had no chance, it was their last dance
And they went out in courage and faith
The part they never show anymore
And the part I remember the most
The horror of it, the terror of it, the dignity of it:
Those who held hands being cornered by flame
And jumped parachuteless, Fellini-like
To a cluttered street and at fleeing feet to death's
embrace
They want us to forget but I cannot forget
I saw things that day that are stored away in the
vaults
Of my soul, things no man should ever have to see
Or remember but I do
Heroes rose out of the midst of that hell
Rescuers ran up and rescuers fell
Heroics captured forever on our hearts and on film
It was no movie but was real
And it turns on the reel in the theater of my mind
Looping over and over and it shall not be forgotten
9-11 in New York when the great towers fell.
 

by Rhonda Love Jackson
Sept 10, 2005
I purposely wrote this without rhyme or meter or
stanzas
because that day and that event will never rhyme
and will never be anything but a discordant and
senseless
act of evil