I remember the morning sky so blue. The air was crisp and clear.                              
Days like that are all too few
With autumn drawing near.

I remember the first report of a plane.
The details weren't precisely clear.
The proof that  it was no accident
Very shortly would appear.

The mother of my children worked
Right there across the street.
Communication proved impossible
When we most needed to; it was impossible to speak.


I saw the smoke from fires rise
From my vantage miles away.
Men died whom I had just met
A scant few days before.

We watched footage in an endless loop
As planes crashed and the towers fell.
Lost was a beautiful late summers day.
Transformed by hate to a vision from hell.
  
We watched as search and rescue changed
To search and recovery.
Sixteen years have passed. Still the fate of some is a mystery.

That was the day we lost.
It's memory still makes me cry.
The day death came for so many
Out of a clear blue sky.

16 years ago many woke up not knowing this day would be their last
coworkers, Friends, Couples, Brothers, Sisters, All lost in the Rubble
The Attacks left us scared and afraid
But We banded together to show the ones who wanted to break us that we won't back down
It is hard to think that on a normal day that the news that Mommy or Daddy wouldn't come home
had to be given to young children
It is hurtful to think that there are people out there  that want to hurt us
It is scary that there are people who won't even remember the day and the events that took place simply because they weren't alive.
But Today we remember the Events that happened that changed the course of history
In Our Eyes
Forever

The yolk of yesteryear festered
Leaving fewer shoes at the masjid
Fewer smiles at Eid more taut lines
At the corner of Imam's mouth as he
Raised his hands to cover his head and
Cried the Azan to an empty room

Behind him tenuous shadows lurked
Eager to report back to an eagle with
Its talon scratched feudal lines deciding
Who gets to live and for how long
In countries far away where children
Have learned to fear the sky