Opening The Doors To That Day Poem by Susan Lacovara

(Right there before us
Played out in real time,
Cameras, congress, confessional
Coverage of the unthinkable...)

As if time paused
In a locked room of remembrance
Opened gain, the old wound
Unveiling the scar
Present and obvious
Never to be fully healed
The band aid of passing years
Torn from our thin skinned recollections
Buried long in ash and steel, reverb
Branded burnt into our 'missing them' minds
Staircases leading to streets of fire
Captain's crushed helmets and boots
Smothered in the dust of despair
And the disappearance of innocence
Faces, oh the awful many many faces
Their pictures hang no longer frightened
But frozen, timeless tales
On the ceiling to floor facade
Of never to be forgotten

Voices sing 'hallelujah'
Heard through choked back tears
Swallowing the sadness of that day
Today with a lump of pride
Digesting all over again
Their senseless passing
To be stored in the chambers of our hearts
The heroics of the common man
Encapsulated in September streaming sunlight
Turned quickly to the unimaginable
Will not be allowed to die again
In flaming rubbled ruins
But live...in the well waters deep
And defiant
Against what could not
Steal our resolution
To be the better
To be the best
The brilliant light
Beyond the ash

* On the dedication of the memorial 9/11 museum, in Lower Manhattan
Where the Towers fell, and now, the new Freedom Tower eclipses our skyline...we remember.....always we remember...PEACE