poets will write, politicians will pontificate
memories posted all over the internet
100 years from 2001, will people
scour the internet for old images
and stories about what people were
doing when they heard the towers fell:
I was dressing for work, standing in the living room
of the house on Boothill when Diane Sawyer said
there had been an apparent accident: a plane had
crashed into one of the towers. While she was
explaining, the second plane plowed into the other
twin and we knew, all of us at the same time knew--
this was no accident and that we would never be
the same.
I sat down on the couch trying to decide whether
to go to work, whether it was safe--Austin, after all,
is a state capital and there were now reports of
a plane and the Pentagon and somewhere over
Pennsylvania and what if I were riding into
disaster number five or six or 46? And the phone
started ringing. We all needed each others' voices,
to hear each other as we knew there were people
incinerating as we spoke, flames fueled by
hatred were lapping around our feet, we understood.
It's history to some, but for others this day in history
is a recurring nightmare, a testament to how cruel
humans can be. I was waiting for the next attack--
maybe I still am.
Valerie Bridgeman
© September 11, 2013
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