Remembering September 11th

I lived just across the water from the Twin Towers on 9/11 in Brooklyn. I was in the subway going into Manhattan when the train stopped. We smelled smoke. Within 3 minutes men walked through the train telling us that the fire was above ground; we were not in danger. We are turning all the trains back to Brooklyn. With that they were gone. Very shortly afterwards the train began moving. I couldn't believe they had moved the trains back to Brooklyn so fast. When I entered the subway system the Twin Towers, though on fire, still stood. When I came above ground both towers were gone.

As I drove my daughter back and forth from Brooklyn to Long Island often; she was going to school out there. I remember crying each time the smoke or spotlights they were using came into sight. I wrote the first two lines of this poem during one of those trips.

Twin Towers

                                         A hole was punched in the sky today
                                         Two thousand voices screamed out in silence
                                         Now they've tried to plug the hole
                                         With ethereal blue lights
                                         They are as temporary
                                         As the buildings and our lives
                                         Pretty and eerie though they are
                                         They are not lasting
                                         Reminding me of how temporary and fragile
                                         Life really is
                                         It was and remains too easy to turn them off

                                                   by Cynthia J. Cage  (written between 11 Sept 2001 - 21 June 2002)

Pictures taken with camera phone tonight. As we remember our stories let's remember those lives that were lost and their families who must live with it.

        

We will never forget.