Twenty Years Ago

 

These are always tough to write.

I’ve actually written ten of them.

You’d think it would get easier,

but it never really does.

 

20 years is a lifetime to some,

20 years is nothing in the universe.

20 years ago, is odd to say.

20 years ago, is easy to remember.

 

09/11/2001.

As much a date in my mind as

12/07/1941 and 06/06/1944,

as much as 04/12/1861 and

04/02/1917 or 01/28/1986.

 

All dates of infamy and pain.

Shared across this country like

a yoke of impossible disbelief.  

Joining us all in the choir of sorrows.

 

We have grown with the scars

etched on our souls,

while the young know nothing

of the marks we carry inside.

 

It’s strange to imagine a world

before 9/11. I don’t remember

what life was like before then.

Were we less divided as a country?

More divided?

 

Were conspiracies and cockamamie

theories just the left-overs of bad

X-Files episodes or were we always

headed down such a divisive path?

 

Does it diminish the memory of all

those valiant lost and dead when we

play with the tableau of history to suit

our perspective?

 

I miss who we were,

20 years ago, on 09/09/2001.

I miss not having to ask these questions.

I honor those that were elevated into memory,

as I trace the scar on my soul.

                                            -------------------------------------------------

 

 - Photo Credit - Me. I took this photo on 08/23/2001 (I had it framed, that’s why it looks like I took it with a cell phone.)