I was 13 years old when the attacks shook our country. Living in Colorado, I certainly wasn’t directly affected by the violence, but I look back at that Tuesday in September as the day I lost my childhood innocence. I was just old enough to truly understand the depth of what was happening, but I still didn’t know how to respond to the intense pain and deep sense of helplessness that I felt in my heart. Around this very time that evening (11:00 pm or so) I laid in my bed reflecting on everything I had seen that day and I started to weep. I sat up and wrote the majority of this poem on a piece of paper. Sure the meter and rhyming schemes are constantly changing, but it was the first time I can actually remember using writing as an outlet. (The last stanza was clearly written over a month later when I heard we had started the campaign in Afghanistan. My emotions were still pretty raw even then.) It is worth mentioning that a teacher of mine caught wind of this poem and submitted to a writing annual. It is published in the Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans, 2002 edition.
The devil came to our country today,
In New York City and DC he played.
He sped through towns in a scary disguise,
In planes with people in them he flies.
The brave and valiant pilots died,
A stab wound somewhere fatal,
Then these violent men would take,
The jets to use for later.
No passengers would land that day,
All died inside these bombs.
The terrorists took them to their graves,
Into buildings they flew headlong.
In Pennsylvania more victims fell,
Although some lives were saved.
The passengers defended the White House,
Leaving many people unscathed.
The people in that deadly jet,
Were heroes all along.
They sacrificed their lives for others,
And detonated a living bomb.
And from the ashes of the World Trade Center,
And the rubble of the Pentagon,
AMERICA rises singing grief,
Many lives have been taken by this thief.
While firefighter and rescue teams,
Search and hope to find,
We are starting to rebuild everything,
Our country and our minds.
Many people have been found,
More dead than alive,
And still our country trusts in GOD,
To bring us through this time.
Now our country is striking back,
At the suspects of this killing,
Innocent slayings will desist,
Hopefully and GOD willing.
