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| Image retrieved from 911memorial.org |
Don't Tell Me
by Laurie J. Kemp
I don't need to be told never to forget,
it is impossible not to remember.
A young mother, a young teacher
I stood before a group of teenagers
a high school class of mostly boys.
She came up from the office,
a co-worker and friend
she whispered in my ear.
A plane hit the twin towers
they think it might be a terrorist attack.
What? I looked at her in awe.
Reactions to shocking news
sometimes create a lapse in judgement.
We turned on the classroom TV.
And within seconds, I exposed them.
Their young and idealistic eyes
watched the second plane.
The first tower in smoke and flames,
the second one struck by a flying bomb
filled with innocent people.
Seven hundred fifty thousand pounds,
the airplane tore through the steel and glass
like they were play-doh and tinker toys.
A little boy, first or second grade
stopped by and peeked in the room.
"No fair- the high school is watching a movie!"
There was no movie, no special effects.
This was real, stunningly and horrifically real.
A day I will always remember in so much detail.
Phones ringing off the hook,
parents arriving off schedule in hysterics
the confusion, the worry, the sadness.
An empty classroom by noon.
A call to my husband in the field.
Terrorist attack? He hadn't heard a thing.
Days of nothing on television
except tragedy and sorrow
questions with no answers.
How could we concern ourselves with anything else?
We were in collective shock,
in fear and in mourning.
A nation brought together in the worst way
brave and selfless acts of rescue
a declaration of united patriotism.
We lost so many, so much that day.
My parents had Kennedy and MLK
We had Reagan and the Challenger
All of us would now have September 11th
We must remember, they say
How can we possibly forget?
9/11
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