Can you hear the silence rushing over the waves of amber fields
whispering a secret that, time itself, has successfully concealed?
Can you hear the cries of heartbreak and the heavy breath of shock?
Is it something now forgotten 'neath a dusty hinge and lock?

Do you see the angles flying over the wings of silver birds?
Do you remember when they landed and shared immortal words?
Has it gone from your memory like a dream waning to the light?
How can you have fogotten when the day turned into night?

Those in the city streets on that one, crisp summer day
will always remember when their skin turned red and gray.
They remember the shaking of the earth and that sound...
the day that mankind was forced to crumble to the ground.

Some remember searing their hands searching for those lost.
Some remember posting photos of a loved one now a ghost.
The air was thick and fiery - hell was set aflame upon the ground
beneath a perfect sky - good and evil fought in leaps and bounds.

Can you hear the funeral marches - soft tapping of a thousand feet
paradng with their memories, looking for painless relief?
Can you hear the sirens wailing of the ghostly engine crews?
Can you hear the infant crying for the father he never knew?

How could you forget the lines formed to buy a gallon of gas
and how the skies went silent...no planes allowed to pass?
How can you forget the pain that was felt from coast to coast?
How can you forget the ones who had lost the most?

U-Haul trucks pulled over and checking our water supply...
How can you forget when we thought each day we'd die?
Have you forgotten the anthems that were sung by every man?
Have you forgotten the unity in this county not since seen again?

Have you forgotten NineEleven...
or is that just a number now?

©August 15, 2006 Lori S. Maynard