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A few weeks ago, I was asked to bring my book of poetry to a reading on September 11, at a local Barnes and Noble book store. Most of the other poets, however, read poems they written commemerating the events of 9-11-2001. I didn't have one. Several days later I decided I shoud have a poem for 9-11 and the words started flying into my head. It took on a voice of its own and here it is.

9-11

In denial
Speechless, fraught with disbelief
I was agape
As the events of September 11, 2001
Unfolded

Surely it was a movie, fiction
Surely it was War of the Worlds and Orson Wells revisited
It couldn't be us
The invincible and benevolent America
It was

It couldn't be our innocent
It couldn't be our mothers and fathers
Our uncles and aunts and sons and daughters
It couldn't be our friends, our compatriots
It was

Cowards, fanatics, Miscreants!
Soulless, Godless, mindless imbeciles
Misguided martyrs, wretched zealots
Killers of American innocents
Murderers

Sickened by misguided propaganda
Filled with abject hatred
Nineteen of Satan's henchmen and
Four hijacked jetliners
Now became deadly missiles of destruction
Disaster

I was at work
Tom Altee,
Wide-eyed in awe and incredulity
Walking rapidly towards me
Said:
"They just flew an airliner into the World Trade Center"
I didn't understand

Insulated and naive
I believed
Nothing really bad could happen in America
That was only in other countries
I was ignorant
I was mistaken
It had

Somber, horrifying images
Awe stricken, rapidly talking announcers
Confusion, dismay, fear and anger and tears
Running, falling, screaming, horns and sirens
Bleeding, burning, choking
Heroism
The television captured it all
The horror

Acrid, billowing
Angry black smoke plumes in blue sky
Mingled with departing souls
As they drifted upwards
Towards the heavens
The horror

And only in a century
Where television makes images seem larger than life
Did a million, million astonished eyes
Witness
A second jetplane missile
Explode into a second tower
The horror

And then
The million, million grief stricken eyes
Watched
As debris and falling bodies
Plunged to the ground
The horror

On
September the Eleventh
Year two-thousand and one
The earth entered a new age
Where cowards and religious fanatics
Bring death and destruction to innocent people
Acting in the name of
Their God

But the indomitable will of Americans
Our goodness and bravery and benevolence and strength
Our fight for freedom and peace and honor
Will forever be Immortalized
By the heroic last words and actions of Todd Beamer
When he said:
"Let's Roll!"
H. Steven Robertson 9-12-2003