The weather was just right

My skin both warm and cool

The skies clear and blue

An encapsulating pool

Arriving early in our nation’s capital

For a long day on the go

I had been playing a CD in the car

So was not yet in the know

Not knowing what had happened

Would change our lives forever

The news I heard did not make sense

A plane had hit one tower

By the time we got a TV on

Lower Manhattan on every station

Both towers now engulfed in flames

Broadcasting across the nation

Unable to comprehend it all

One crash maybe human error

But those billows in broad daylight

Two had to mean sheer terror

Before I knew, the screen split in two

The Pentagon now burning as well

Outside my window the Capital dome

Was I this close to living Hell?

People tried calling to get me to leave

Flip phone networks not working

Oh yes, I had to escape DC now

With more airborne planes still lurking

Washington was all noise and chaos 

Every turn a siren preaching fear

My only way to navigate out

Keep ebony smoke in rearview mirror

Once back on the highway north

My brakes started giving out

But no way was I pulling over

Only one thing to think about

I had left the house angry without a kiss

We’d fought about life that weekend

A day on the road, a needed detente

Time apart for our hurt to mend

How wrong I had been, stupid in fact

To leave her in that state

One toddler flittering, another womb-fluttering

No way to depart my soulmate

As I arrived home to towers falling

And a country field now an inferno

I hugged her long and strong 

Full of every imaginable sorrow 

So grateful that our firstborn

Was oblivious to what played out

Our hearts and souls were broken

Spilling every cry and shout

Later that day word came from the city

Grim news about a friend from school 

Hearing the nickname I knew so well

“It doesn’t look good for the Bull” 

His funeral would be surreal

A church service without a coffin

A dreadful scene for all involved

One that played out far too often

But back to that Tuesday, before it was 9/11

Unending hours of channel hopping

Needing a break from the horrible scenes

We took our young son shoe shopping

Seeking some normalcy, with none to be found

Our daze continued for who knows how long

As news came out, more questions than answers

Each day a new theory, each week a new song

Twenty years on now, still hard to fathom

Both babies from then now out of the nest

Thankful for our third birdie still roosting

But the pain from that day weighs no less

So much has changed, so much hate and despair

How much we vilify the strong and the meek

When what we all could do more of for sure

Is spread grace and turn the other cheek

Today’s weather an eerie carbon copy

Of that fateful day from 2001

A reminder of all that happened

A moment that only terror won

Please remember all the lives that were taken

On September 11th and onward

And know that whatever emotions we feel

Love will always, always move us forward