I worked in a NY ER when this happened. The day changed my life and the lives of many that day. It took me a very long time to go to Ground Zero, though I flew over it on the first flight out of Newark Airport after the tragedy. We lost so many great people that day, childhood friends, friends, family, co-workers. I wrote this in December 2001, after my first trip.
A NEW VIEW
Antique spires jaggedly pierce the sky
The new smoothly flow, seeming to melt into the horizon.
This view has been seen a thousand times
Sharp contrasts an overwhelming fullness catching the breaths of those crossing for the first time.
Familiar to me, it grows, this precious skyline
I have crossed this way thousands of times, feeling a salty spray of the river splash
As the old, sturdy vessel cuts through
Deep green almost black, sun shines reflecting causing me to squint
There, she stands, tall and strong graceful as a gull resting on this water
Protecting us, a symbol of the freedom generations fought to gain
Symbol of arms of many who traveled from strange lands to gain the right to
Believe, to gain a basic human right.
She has caught the eye of many like a beautiful woman entering a room.
She causes the same deep silence, the same awe
Today it is not these sights that take my breath
But the sight of that which will forever remain unseen
The empty space, a foreboding vision, nakedness filling the void
Today they are not there in the background towering over this city
Who shrank from the sheer size of these majestic structures
Silently stepping onto ground, I walk slowly and deliberately
Yet not knowing what to expect
Moving closer
Watching in awe the thousands who have come to this
I wonder what brings them so far from home to share this
I am there. Hundreds around me fill my ears
With deafening silence
On sacred ground tears fall as the wings of thousands of angels
Cut sharply through the wind, descending, yet and always the protectors.
Reminders Loves lost, a childs laughter, bright flames
Extinguished too far before the darkness should have fallen.
Reminders of the deep love of country
Of those we knew and those we didnt, of those who taught us
Lessons of sacrifice, lessons of innocence lost, lessons
Of appreciation for the freedom that we so boldly accept as given
Reminders hanging like wishes in the wind.
C.M.Gaeta
Copyright 12/17/01
IN LOVING REMBERANCE
9/11/01 ALL GAVE SOME
. SOME GAVE ALL
