A Day of Remembrance

There is no need for pictures.
I don't need video to remind me.
The event is seared in my memory as clear as if it were yesterday.
When I heard about the first plane, I thought it was an accident.
When I heard about the second plane, I knew it wasn't.

I could feel the collective fear.
I saw the horrified faces.
Shock. Disbelief. Anger. Sadness.
The hope that it was some sort of nightmare.
The numbness in knowing that it was real.

We watched as the heroes ran in to save us.
We watched as the cowards who ran away would later exploit us.
Noun verb 9/11. Noun verb 9/11.
That would soon be their rallying cry.
Those cowards who talked the talk but never walked the walk.

And then the giants fell.

Wary zombies covered in grime and soot staggered away northbound.
Even if you weren't physically there, you still felt that way, like a staggering zombie as the world watched.
But to them, they didn't see two giants fall.
They saw three.
And it seemed we were all Americans that day. That we were all united.

Until the cowards acted with their Shock Doctrine.
Go shopping. WMD. Aluminum tubes. Yellowcake from Niger. Can we attack Iraq now? After all, it's been in the plans since the beginning.
Osama. Saddam. Al Qaeda.
It was all the same to them.
Noun verb 9/11.

The cowards have come and gone.
Well, most of them anyway.
Some still lurk around in the diluted notion that they were the heroes, not the cowards.
And after all that's happened, they're still admired by some.

This has become a day of remembrance.
But it's not the only day of the year that some remember
As they pass by the hole where the giants once stood.
Eight years later, the hole remains.
Even when they finally fill it, it will always remain.