When I awoke today
The towers were still gone,
The skies were still empty,
And reality was, well, real.

This had not been some long, sad dream,
A mass hallucination
Though we wished, oh, how we wished,
That it had been.

Countless tiny human tales were being told
A cousin climbing down 102 flights - safe.
A person - persons - seen falling, flailing
A frantic loving phone call from a doomed son

The horror of the deed, the aftermath
The knowledge that we all are changed
That this was no ordinary passing of 24 hours
That the stream of existence, ever changing,
Had been dammed, diverted and
Will forever remain so
Sinks into our national consciousness

Despite tears, despite anger
Despite calls for revenge and
Prayers for peace
Despite shouts of exultation from foreign lands
Seeming more foreign than ever before
Despite the rubble, the deaths
The hopes, prayers and tears
Despite the unceasing work of bone-tired men and women

We go on
We must

And amidst the strange sameness, even numbness
We are - irrevocably

Changed.

God help us every one.