Upon Visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York City
This place is much changed. Where once
there was a plaza, and underground mall,
and two towers (of course), there is now
a chaos of concrete and new-grown trees.
You can still see the Hudson from here;
when the towers went down, you couldn't see
your own feet. And yet they were not deterred,
those who heeded the cries for help,
the calls that made it through the switchboard, the
desperation. The earthly rumble and wall of smoke.
Bodies falling from the sky.
In they went, not knowing the cause
of this (lacking the word
let's call it) disaster; how many were lost
when the second tower collapsed
in on itself, as if sucked into hell,
or more accurately as if hell were raised up
into the sky to swallow it whole?
Rubble remained, and toxic fumes,
but lost was the heart of the city,
gone was the light of the nation.
And though we rebuild

The memorial is a large square hole in the middleof the concrete space, surrounded by railingswith mounted plaques that have first respondernames engraved on them; water flows down all foursides into the hole, forming a pool of water; inthe middle of that pool is a smaller square, intowhich the water flows, as if without bottom.