Never Forget

My body shakes.

Choking on the poisoned stench of oil
impenetrable smoke blinds me to what is happening.

Not that I really want to see.

It is enough to feel heat sear my skin,
My bones,
as i feel them flow from me
racing through my doors,
scuttling down my staircases,
dribbling through my wounds -

All those tiny voices
who give me such purpose -

RUN, LITTLE FRIENDS, RUN!
DESERT ME WHILE YOU CAN!
I SHALL HOLD UNTIL...

Oh no.
Not again.
Not her.

I stare at him,
to the North.
So strong,
so tall,
so proud...

Yet my sight canot be truth.

That did not just happen.
It is not happening now.

Blackish-grey smoke flows from the jet...
Oh, those poor passengers -

It is not,
cannot,
be pouring from him!

Not my brother!

Someone tell me that jet went down somewhere else!
Can anybody see what is really going on?!?

ANYBODY!?!

What is that sound?

Horror splits the sky,
Wailing,
whirring.

"South," I try to scream,
try to warn,
though no warning reaches her -
only swift, merciless carnage.

Silently I stand by my twin.
Each of us quake in anguish.
Each of us fight against
Flames...
Gravity...
Time.

I hear her cry from her wound.
Squealing, crunching,
I listen as she buckles inward,
collapsing into rubble.

Vibrations within me ripple...
my crumbling body melts within
as I strain against my fate.
I cannot fall,
will not fall,
must not fall...

"North," she whispers,
"it is time."

I sigh heavily, and then feel nothing at all.

And then...

Something changes within.

Clanking rings loud,
voices around us stir,
are we being rebuilt
the way we were?

Or better yet...

Taller we'll stand,
side by side,
above the Manhattan clouds,
to show the world our pride!

NO...

That is not our purpose now.
What then, can it be?
What are we being reshaped into?

Exhaustion takes us again.

Until...

With a shattering of glass we awaken once more!
Now we've an ocean beneath us, and the world to explore!
We're excited to sail the seas for the rest of our days
as we repeat to all the meaning of our phrase:

"Never Forget"
...Yet never regret
Events that occurred once ago;
Sometimes things take place
So that we learn to face
the lessons which life has to show.