Important Weekend (9/11 & 9/12) and a trip to New York

Sept. 11- the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center

 

Two Thousand One, Nine Eleven

Written by:

Paul Spreadbury, York Beach, ME

Two thousand one, nine eleven

Five thousand plus arrive in heaven

As they pass through the gate,

Thousands more appear in wait.

A tall bearded man,

wearing a stovepipe hat

steps forward and greets them,

Then says, "Lets chat".

They settle down in seats of clouds

A man named Martin shouts out proud

"I have a dream!" and once he did

The Newcomer says, "Your dream still lives."

Groups of soldiers in blue and gray

Others in khaki, and green then say

"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"

The Newcomer says, "You died not in vain."

From a man on sticks one could hear

"The only thing we have to fear.

The Newcomer says, "We know the rest,

trust us sir, we've passed that test."

A man with a twang from New England shores

Then proclaimed in a voice they had all heard before

"Courage like yours does not hide in caves

You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"

A silence fell within the mist

Somehow the Newcomer knew that this

Meant time had come for her to say

What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day

"In the land of the living, we wrote reports,

Watched our children play in sports

Worked our gardens, sang our songs

Went to church and clipped coupons

We smiled, we laughed,

we cried, we fought

Unlike you, great we're not"

The tall man in the stovepipe hat

Stood and said, "don't talk like that!

Look at your country, look and see

You died for freedom, just like me"

Then, before them all appeared a scene

Of ruined streets and twisted beams

Death, destruction, rubble and dust

And people working just 'cause they must

Hauling ash,

lifting stones,

Knee deep in hell

But not alone

"Look! Blackman, whiteman, brownman, and yellow

Side by side helping their fellow!"

So said Martin, as he watched the scene

"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."

Down below three firemen raised

The colors high into ashen haze

The soldiers above had seen it before

On Iwo Jima back in '44

The man on sticks studied everything closely

Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly

"I see pain, I see tears,

I see sorrow - but I don't

              see fear."

"You left behind husbands and wives

Daughters and sons and so many lives

are suffering now because of this wrong

But look very closely. You're not really gone.

All of those people, even those you've never met

All of their lives, they'll never forget

Don't you see what has happened?

Don't you see what you've done?

You've brought them together, together as one.

The man named Abe stood and said

"Welcome my friends," and from there he led,

five thousand Newcomers, all heroes to heaven

On this day of our Lord, two thousand one nine eleven.

Sept. 12th- Grandparent's Day
We had a nice visit with one set of grandparent's on Sunday.  My girls love when they come to visit since they live 2 hours away and we don't see them often.  The girls made a card for them that they colored and my 5 yr. old wrote the words and drew some hearts and flowers.  It was also neat for me because Grandma had just gotten back from a trip to New York and told me about the experience of being there on 9/11 (gave me goosebumps to hear about it).

Now I'm gearing up for a week away from my husband, but it's not me that's taking the trip... he's headed to New York for job training.  I don't think he'll have a chance to do much sightseeing since it's work-related, and he's going to be on the other side of the state so nowhere near New York City, but hey- it's still New York.  I've actually never been to New York but would love to go someday...