A Moment

“The twin Towers have been hit”
My sister screams from her NY home.
Such a beautiful day, now a nightmare.
People are falling, hitting ground with innocuous sounding thuds

I view the horror
From the safety of my California home,
Such a beautiful day, the birds are singing,
But buildings are falling.

The towers fold into themselves
Exhausted from the fight to stand.
Such a beautiful day, picnics suspended
Firefighters and policemen are gone, unable to save themselves.

What of our beliefs?
Did something fundamental change?
Will we become fearful,
Less certain of our floors presence when we awake?

We join hands,
With growing awareness that
We have become one.
The President speaks with conviction.

We are ready. Desperately ready
To share in the battle to come.
Needing commands to pay more, use less,
Fight, Sacrifice.

A magnificent spirit.
Millions of people ignoring,
For the moment,
Self.

Did whites, blacks, Jews and Catholics,
Did all Americans, for just that instant
Share the pain, fear and rage?
The potential, breathtaking.

Far beyond the call of Kennedy’s assassination,
This moment stretched for days.
The rabble and the rich, equally roused,
Entered a transformed universe. For that moment we understood
The course of reason, and its limitations.
Soon enough we will loose the dogs,
We have the victims blessings.

The moment, that extraordinary,
Terrible moment, when we knew evil,
Shared an epiphany
That elevated our consciousness,
Enabled us to define the “other”,
And feel destiny would be calling.

That call never came.
Deprived of the terrible glorious dream,
Where all things were possible,
We returned to our lives.

I visit the space that called us together.
Read the heartrending pleas and poems
That should have been immortalized along with the ruins.
Such a beautiful day, such a terrible day.