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Courage rising from the ashes of depravity |
The Phoenix Kathleen McNamara The Phoenix has risen from the ashes strong, gleaming, defiant now a guardian of its’ past a beacon for the future Water gently falling like a river of tears into a bottomless pit of sorrow visitors touch the burnished metal to try to connect with the memory of the engraved name a lone tree, supported by lovingly placed anchors, stands testament to the fragile tenacity of life But the most precious memories lie below the street steel-rimmed glass doors and omnipresent security grant access to the remnants of a once proud past A concrete wall a feat of brilliant engineering to hold back the Hudson still intact polished marble floors lead past the remnants of the steel façade of the Twins mangled steel beams attest to fire, destruction and gravity The walls of these hallowed halls are covered with those terrible pictures and descriptions and interviews a powerful and reverential atmosphere prevails while long-buried sorrow and rage battle within my soul three separate encounters rend my heart Recording after recording of unanswered, plaintive phone calls desperation clearly heard in each voice Anguished witness accounts of the final, agonizing choice of death testimony to the calmness and dignity in that terrible decision But in the end, it was the pictures of the shoes… Empty shoes, scattered on the sidewalks below the offices in the sky the stunned faces of the onlookers on the street the fear, horror and unasked questions on their faces We all knew but did not want to know our minds unable to fathom the depravity our hearts now joined in agony but like the Phoenix of glass and steel we too guard this past we will remember for the future. |