In memoriam



We remember them...
the Towers, of course, as they stood,
steel sentinels at the tip of Manhattan,
first rising in pieces from foundation stone,
at moments reflecting pale glimmer of dawn,
shining bright in summer sun or glimpsed
through clouds drifting low to touch the earth.
They were robed in sunset bronze,
glittered with lights of night workers,
never fully dark, constantly illumined
by those within,
and, by the heavens
we remember them as they fell,
in a shroud of smoke and ash and choking dust.

When we remember the towers, let us still more
remember those who lived and died there,
that their lives be a sentinel of memory,
a witness to the terror of violence, and
to the heroism of those who simply strive
to live.

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