Most of us may know but give little thought,
Of this dreadful catastrophe of destruction and distraught
You know about the thousands who perished with painful torment,
And the collapsed ruins which happened to be of a sinister event
It lingers in the back of our minds I’m sure of it,
But I know one thing- it’s certainly something we don’t forget
As we grow with assurance that we are safe and free,
We take it for granted to a certain degree
As you rise and stand up for the pledge of allegiance,
So here I stand explaining a nine-eleven experience
To whomever reads or hears this, whether you are an
Acquaintance, admirance, or audience,
Just keep one thing in mind in case you become withdrawn,
Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s all gone

That September day began like any other day,
Business men and women dressed in formal suits clutched tightly to
Their briefcases, working hard for good pay,
The Manhattan sky was fresh and new,
For today it was given a deep baby blue,
Yellow taxis and cars were quickly flooding the streets,
The whole city was basically a big jungle of concrete
Shops and stores once again reopened,
But before long, the new day’s promotion would end to a
Horrendous, alarming commotion

All of a sudden, screams are heard in every direction,
People shouting and crying and you feel a disconnection
You don’t understand what’s happening or what to think,
Until you look up and you can barely even blink
You turn to run, but something’s holding you back,
There’s people shouting ‘Help!’ and others crying because of the attack
You try to move, but you’re not sure what to do,
As you hear another ‘whoosh’ and ‘crash’ you second
Thought because you think you just heard your heart break in two.
You’re torn between saving yourself, feeling selfish,
And risking your life to save someone else from destruction and anguish
But then you hear the cry of ambulance sirens aching,
As if it was an everlasting melody for the dead and the dying
Suddenly, you can no longer hear, your ears can take in no more,
You ask yourself, “Is this the end of the world?”

You feel your time in existence is coming to an end,
You just want to get this over with but then again,
It’s your life of course, you still try to defend
No longer are you breathing this thing we call oxygen,
Instead, crisp ash and fire are helping you thrive,
But how so? The people around you are no longer alive,
Maybe it was your desperate will to survive,
But that is impossible, why did I survive?
You begin to feel guilty that you thrived,
And you can’t feel anything except hopelessly deprived

For a moment, your dry mouth tries to swallow back saliva,
You’re desperate for water,
You don’t know if you’ll be around for very much longer,
Licking ash from your lips, tasting like burnt wood,
You stick out your tongue and feel droplets of water,
Falling softly onto your tongue like rain,
But then you realize it’s the firefighters above you spraying a fire,
You’d look up, but there’s ashes in your eyes,
Keeping you from seeing farther and higher.

You’re caught between feeling like a newborn and dead,
Seeing the tears being shed and the blood being bled
You bend down to touch the cracked broken ground,
You see a lost doll sticking out of the rubble,
Despite the dread and pain you feel, you pull it out,
It’s a comfort to you now in this time of great trouble
You feel its rough edges where it had broken,
It smiled still even through all the smoking and ruin

You look up at the darkened black sky,
As the red fire burns, you begin to cry
Nothing else mattered anymore,
Not even how much money you had or the expensive clothes you wore,
Or even the beautiful lost doll you adored
Home was exactly where you wanted to be,
Your family and friends were who you wanted to see
You’d never take your life for granted again,
That is if you survived this, definitely then
You open your eyes and you’re back home,
You’ve experienced the agony and suffering alone
You’ve woken up, you’re now a brand new you,
Hopefully this experience will be a lesson for you too