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The Colors of 9/11
Blue were the skies that early September day.
Silver gleamed the towers in the morning sun.
Dark arrows streaked towards their gleaming targets.
Orange and red were the angry blossoms, set off with black billows.
Then came the white flurries, showers of paper, last works of thousands.
As the orange and red blossoms unfolded, a new drizzle, unspeakable, started.
Red, blue, and white flashed the lights, rushing towards the towers.
Dark garbed figures, marked by safety yellow bands, formed and advanced towards the bright blossoms.
Another dark arrow found its broad, five-sided white and red brick target, and another orange and red blossom blooms.
Uniforms of many hues scrabbled to help each other.
At last the early orange and red blossoms, and silver gleaming towers, were swallowed by the earth, belching forth a choking grey cloud.
Green was the field, furrowed by the last dark arrow, marking ordinary Americans’ extraordinary victory.
Red, white and blue rose the star spangled banner in the late afternoon light,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Published in Group Writing
A brief remembrance.
This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under the September 2019 Group Writing Theme: “Autumn Colors.” There are plenty of dates available. Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
I’m still angry. I wonder if there haven’t been any other large attempts lately because the Jihadis are lying low or if they’ve been degraded.
Has the fracking revolution and dominance of American energy producers dried up much of the funding? Do they think Trump is crazy enough to implement the Curtis LeMay response next time?
It’s very unfortunate but I’d argue that we’ve been degraded as well as the Jihadis – hopefully not as much.
Remember the man who saw it coming and saved so many.
The once and future hero.
Thank you.
There are heroes among us and I’m so grateful for them all.
I thought of Rick Rescorla and his exemplary heroism all of his life, which ended in the service of hundreds on 9/11, when I read a story earlier this year about a Palestinian man who saved the children of a Rabbi killed in a terror attack in July of 2016.
The Rabbi and his family were driving near Hebron when his vehicle was attacked by terrorists who shot everybody in the car. The car overturned, and some of those inside could not escape.
A Palestinian man was driving by with his wife, a medical doctor, stopped, helped the children escape from the car, and provided comfort and medical care until emergency personnel arrived. He saved lives that day.
His fellow Palestinians were so proud of his selfless actions that he was the subject of harassment and vicious death threats from that point forward, and he lived his life mostly in hiding. After his visa expired last year, he became homeless in Israel. His story was remembered, he was found, and last month he was granted permanent Israeli residency status. His identity is hidden, and in the few photographs taken and shown of coverage of the story, his face is blurred.
Thus, a culture of life love and life, versus a culture of hate and death.
That is the real war, and it’s one we must win.
Prayers for all those killed on that awful day and in subsequent terror attacks, all those who’ve given part, or their whole lives in service since, and for all their families and loved ones. I remember.
Autumn colors … my favorite may be red …
The man in the Red bandana …
This day always fill me with deep sadness. So many died. So many families wounded. Thank you for your poignant tribute, Clifford.
Thankful for the healing of time – I can’t watch all those re-runs to this day – I can still picture it all as it unfolded and even the day before, and what I was doing, every detail. It was the most beautiful sunny September day.
Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart is a wonderful book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105251.Heart_of_a_Soldier
In memory of the heroes of Benghazi, September 11-12, 2012. Prayers for them, their families and their loved ones.