9/11 "Here and There"

9/11
Yeah I was there
Not THERE
But close by
20 blocks away
On my way to work
Pumping a stolen Jay Z’s new album
In a stolen CD player
Knew there would be hell to pay
But as the CD hit the first track
for the second time
I knew I was late
And there would be worse consequences
And repercussions
But I was going to get there
It was too important for me to get there

Ignorant to all
Who can understand a subway PA
System that was actually silent
On a day when it should have been
Blasting through the tightly packed bodies
Of various others who had
to get there

I emerged from the station
Saw the panic and terror
The smoke and screaming
The wide eyes and the
Nostrils spreading across
Frightened Senior Managers and Partners faces
That bore the horror
Of being THERE
Running for their lives
Thinking of the lives that were still
THERE

But I was going to get there
I had to be there
To reach a job that cared
nothing for me
That I now see
I stood on the street
surrounded by others
Probably on probation like me
Placed there by an angry He/She
There
Had been cut in two
There
Was only one building standing

“Don’t you know what happened”
“One fell already”
“There”
“Oh my God what the hell happened down there?”


I fell to my knees right there
Dry heaving a coffee
I wished I had drank
Entrails caught in a vise
I felt pain
in my nails
my hair
my veins
my heart
Is this really happening here?
Am I really here?
To watch the other building there
Fall

As I watched the crumbling mass
Heard the screams
from those gathered
there
on the ground
With me
in a small crying
praying
sweating
snotting
crowd on
20th street
I saw what could only be
Comparable
to what those saw
In Lebanon
Iraq
Bosnia
Somalia
Hiroshima

Here it happened
And I was there
I’m still not ok
because I was there
I ain't all the way there
But I’m still here
I'm still here