On that ghastly day, 9/11/01 everyone in America was affected. |
Rainbows and Demons It happened that one day Two planes, two great winged demons With misled minds of fire, red eyes vacant Crashed into the two towers And, as they tumbled down, so did we Our hope, two erect pillars; brought down by that monster, hate. A sudden empty silence A black pit of throbbing fear embedded in our hearts We all felt it. Businessmen tumulting through jammed streets Children slumped over in their school chairs Wives washing the dishes in bright, livid kitchens Taxi drivers honking relentlessly at one another Babies wailing softly in their dark cribs We all felt it. It was a looming thundercloud that hung over us, Grey mists draping over the sky, ready to burst And when it did, it set a twisting panic in our unnerved hearts A tornado of anxiety, whirling through our minds in a blur As we thought about the ones we loved People moved not leisurely, but in a rush, heads down, minds churning All of America moved, dashed, confused, wondering Wondering how, and why, and… who. And suddenly, phones were not simple devices Used just for friendly chats But held vital information, held peoples’ souls in their plastic speakers As parents called their sons, and either beheld a easing, shaken voice answering Or the loud buzzing of the operator… And in those dark moments of confusion and dread, One death was mourned by millions; One lost daughter punctured a thousand living souls America was one lamenting mind those moments To the mothers who watched their children playing cheerfully Mothers watching with red eyes; with gagged mouths that beheld dreadful news And to the men standing on the empty sidewalks, clutching newspapers Standing in that stony silence, during which they bury their hard grief And to those families who think, who wish it were all a dream Who wish that this world were not full of flicking shadows and darkness And to that graceful woman, staring out the weeping window Silent tears falling down her stolid face, a million faces And yet, as she turned her eyes- a million eyes- from the mourning mess outside They were filled with a glinting hardness; A confidence in the empty shadow weakness had dug A faint, tremulous smile passed her lips- a million more lips And outside, colors weaved together to form a pale rainbow A weak rainbow, hard to see, but it was still there Still shining, tall and proud Pure against the overbearing shadow that loomed in the background That horrific day of 9/11. ~Chloe |