NINE ELEVEN, 2001
Bright, pleasant day – all is well
Early morning of September 11, 2001
Multitudinous thousands in learned commute
Under the Manhattan, New York sun
Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye
Heart-wrenching, unforeseen transformation
Darkest horror without warning descends
Giving reign to chaos and confusion
Small errant aircraft, or so it seems, crashing
High in World Trade Center (WTC) tower
Spewing forth fire and billowing smoke
Sending people screaming, seeking cover
Then, beyond all anticipation, huge passenger jet
Laden with innocents, save for fiendish few
Tearing high into magnificent WTC twin
Hell, into Earth’s realm, breaks through
Thick black smoke, gargantuan fireball
Melting even the steel in its path
Unimaginably searing heat and molten glass
Evil and destruction, in their entire wrath
People suffocating, many of them in flames
Their eyes burning, their bodies singing
Jumping through high-storied windows
Landing far below, instantly…mercifully dying
Blackened sky, shutting out the light
Smoke and soot, thickening the air
People frantically exiting the Towers
Broken, dead bodies everywhere
Blind despairing souls, unable to see, unable to breathe
Scrambling frenetically, seeking escape
From precincts of terror and mayhem
As majestic towers weaken and shake
Then, unfathomably, beyond all expectation
The Twin Towers buckle, crumble and fall
Dooming thousands of helpless, ill-fated souls
Silencing their voices, their dreams and all
Demolished by perpetrators of treachery and malevolence
Twin bastions of freedom and opportunity
Making deafening noise heard all around the world
Falling in insult to peace and democracy
The killers, tolerating no one, or nothing else
Mindless brutes of sinister ideology
Wallowing in hatred and confusion
Terrorists weaned and reared in lunacy
Failing to understand the boundless determination
Of the spirit of justice and defiance
Unable to measure the strength of mercy and goodness
Terrorism will never be triumphant
