For Family & Friends

J.A. Flournoy
Sept. 18, 2001

IT is eerily quiet, as I ride the train Somber faces reading newspapers and preparing for the day

You can feel the tension, the anger, the fear

The anguish, the sorrow, and unspent tears

The week a blur, conversations forgotten,

Visions of flames and ash, and panic

The collective soul of America,

Victims of a terrorist attack.

How will we move forward, our lives forever changed

An act of violence committed against us

On a clear and blue September day.

My heart aches, a cold feeling of dread

A burning question in my head

What did those mad men hope to achieve

In those last moments of madness, honing in on their targets.

To strike us with a dagger made of jet fuel and steel

Made of mothers and fathers, of sisters and brothers,

Of husbands, of wives, of lovers

Of children.

To reach into our hearts and bring us to our knees?

The names and the photos cover bus stops and walls,

The remnants of hope and quest for answers . . .

Now there is silence and tears,

Digging through rubble and ash

Memos and letters and everyday trash.

The wound in this city is deep and obscene,

So many lost and with them a dream.

In our nations capital, a loss just as great

In a faraway field where others chose their fate.

Forever gone the feeling that we are safe,

That we can hold the hand of terror at bay

In the Land of the Free,

With heads bowed in silence, we mourn

With heads raised in defiance we must move on!

We stand tall as never before

In our pain and our anger there is honor and more

What we cannot forget,

What we will not forget,

Our memory is long.

God forgive us for what we will do,

We can find no compassion in our new hearts of steel.

We must fight back, show our enemies the truth

That Americans are a strong and determined group.

I reach for my family, scattered far and wide

I reach for my neighbors with red rimmed eyes

God Bless America, the Home of the Brave.

God, WE count on you for your blessing

As WE respond to this war our unseen enemy has made.

WE will overcome, we will survive

WE will win this battle,

WE will live life.

Judith Flournoy is director information technology for Kelley Drye & Warren L.L.P, based in New York. She is New York regional vice-president of LawNet.