omega
Letters
overflowing inboxes
Busy
conversations
Coffee
perking
Elevators
climbing
Plants
watered
It
is the day beginning
on
Tuesday
the
last Tuesday
Empty
tables
at
Windows on the World
waiting
for
glittering
chats and
gleaming
silver
The
world waiting for trade
for
the exchange of
who
owns what and where
and
for who will win and who will
lose
And
the morning drifted by
as
mornings do
with
nothing outstanding
nothing
understanding
that
this is all
the
mornings there would be
A
shudder, a powerful pull
a
push, a gust, a split
an
opening into sky and flame
and
smoke beyond all night
and
dust beyond all deserts
and
a clutching of the building
on
itself
as
it tried within its bones
to
stand
And
its heart was melting
and
souls were flying
And
a sound
of
twin pain
was
to its side
another
scrape of
metal
on metal and glass
on
glass and the whoosh
of
air and fuel and flame
and
the pall of smoke
that
ate the breath
of
everything that
moved
Side
by side
they
stood
two
terrible wounds
pulling
them apart
the
steel without gleaming
the
steel within melting
their
people
all
their dear and lovely people
that
they knew
that
they harbored
every
day every Tuesday
every
floor, every suite
all
of this falling slowly
surely
down in a
measured
sure death
and
suddenly one
without
the ability to stand
longer
fell
and
in its falling
lasted
lifetimes
centuries
of hopes
sighs
dreams
falling
with pictures
with
eyeglasses
with
outboxes whose papers
flew
far
beyond their
intended
destinations
into
forever
And
the other
the
one who waited
still
stood for awhile
and
at last let go
nothing
to do but fall
nowhere
to go but where
the
other had gone
no
reason to stay
the
lonely sky without its twin
too
much
too
long
too
alone
And
as it fell
and
all within
part
of its terrible death
there
were years in its falling
there
were centuries of conversations
and
eons of memories
and
civilizations of laughter and tears
and
birthdays and life celebrations
and
first days and last days
and
the middle that we know
as
life
and
as it fell on itself
bone
by bone
of
its very existence
becoming
dust
the
sky wrenched and twisted
and
pulled away
from
the sound
the
awful
tearing
sound
and
tried to withdraw
from
the smoke
that
was the life breath
of
the building
and
of its children
those
it harbored
every
day
and
the silence became unattainable
any
more
for
those watching
hearing
mouths
open
the
silence only belonged
to
those
within
whose
last desperate day
was
that day
as
they left
the
highest place
they
had ever been
to
go to
the
truly
highest
place
angels
and
wings of angels
and
feathers
going
up
into
the
clear blue sky
far
above the smoke
far
beyond the
terrible
groan and roar
far
into where we believe heaven is,
far
into where we believe
all
hands were awake, alert
and
pulling them upwards
fast
out
of the pain
out
of the grief
and
into the music
of peace.
this poem was written on 16 september 2001
by susan godman rager
in honor and in memory of those lost 11 september 2001
c2001-2002 SG Rager sgrager@ragerlaw.com
This page is part of the Northern Neck of Virginia Law Page web site.
You may wish to also view the 9-11-02 Poem, written 29 August 2002.
