eighty-eight degrees
walking up Broadway
after shedding tears
too tough to hold back
in St. Pauls Chapel
sat near Washington's
pew and the hundreds of
police & firemen patches
from around the globe
holding the kind & crazies
the letters & pictures
and banners honoring
those who fell with
those towers on that
September morning

blasts of cold air slap
us, the pedestrians with
a welcome relief for a
few brief seconds
passing through
Chinatown
to Little Italy
but not quite there
thinking back to those
towers, those
lives that were up
those stairs
in the fire and
then the smoke and
rubble

now having seen the
rebirth of the spirit
of America
the new tower so
tall already
like God’s right arm
pointing into the
stringy clouds
parting them
America aiming to
come back
again
as I walk up
Broadway and
stop for the light