Never Forget!
morning light fell ordinary
coffee in my hand
the hum of a city
that didnโt yet know
it would break
then a flicker on the screen
a tower in flames
and I froze
smoke rising like a living thing
twisting
curling
impossible to look away from
I could see the skyline change
a wound opening across the river
the air itself turning gray with grief
I called friends
I called strangers
I cried into the phone
as the towers shivered
collapsed
and the sky cracked open
pouring ash
silence
and screams
into every borough
sirens carried over bridges
echoing down streets
people gathered in stunned clusters
eyes fixed
as if staring long enough
might stitch the towers back together
I watched people run toward danger
hands clutching dust
hearts full of courage
some never came home
and of those who did
so many carried the towers inside them
in their lungs
in their blood
in the slow poison of dust and ash
the aftermath stretched on for years
funerals that arrived too late
illnesses that whispered of the rubble
bodies that broke quietly
long after the smoke had cleared
the cleanup claimed more lives
silent as the dust that settled over us
they are not always named
but they are counted in grief
firefighters
laborers
neighbors
souls
who inhaled sacrifice
and exhaled it
until there was nothing left
hours became shadows
shadows became years
and still every name
feels like a stone I carry
the weight of absence reshapes itself
but never disappears
and though I was not inside
I was close enough to breathe it in
to feel the city tremble beneath me
to cry for those lost that day
and for those who kept giving their lives
long after the flames had gone out

This is achingly beautiful, Stacey.
I will never forget, not the day, not the funerals of the boys I grew up with. ๐