“I Remember”
Seventeen years ago
the world changed
my world changed
Seventeen years ago
I held my infant son in my arms
as I watched the buildings burn
across every channel
as I watched the planes
hit the towers again
and again
and again
as I watched the billowing black smoke
the ash of the fallen
of the thrown
of the incinerated
of those who threw
their own lives away
to snatch the lives of innocents
for the crime working in a country they hated
I remember watching footage
on tv of people in foreign lands
dancing and cheering at the news of so many lives lost
and wondering why
I remember watching the face
of the child in my arms
and wondering
what kind of world he would live in
the same wondering I felt
when I had watched the news days after his birth
the news of the newborn babe found in a dumpster
his life thrown away
the same wondering I felt
when a gunman shot up kindergartners
looking forward to Christmas parties
and frosted glittery cupcakes
the same wondering I felt
when students shot up their high school,
then themselves, shooting
for simultaneous oblivion and notoriety
the same wondering I felt
when Batman fans died
crouching on floors and hiding behind seats
for the sin of making it to opening night
the same wondering I felt
when a middle schooler one district over
shot himself in his school’s bathroom,
imagining his blood splattered on floors and walls
the same wondering I felt
when a couple from my son’s own high school
shot themselves in the woods outside his friend’s home
not ten minutes away
the same wondering I felt
when I thought of those other families,
of the victims, heroes, loved ones,
of children growing up without mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers
the same wondering I feel
when I think how easily it could be me
*image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons license
**The above poem is dedicated to the families and victims of September 11th, as well as the victims of violence around the world throughout the years. May your loved ones never be forgotten. May you always be safe and free.
