Witness

On this broad day,

We remember

The falling skies,

The hot horror of death,

And our broken minds

Turned to steel and ash.

As the dust settles

A gray blanket over the heart,

It won't muffle the noise

Threatening

"We will never forget"

All over town.

What if -
I want to forget?

Will I be forgiven

Or even remembered

If I lose the path

To vengeance...

On my way to Peace -

As I work my way to health,

Does my obligation

Have an ending?

Or is it always a beginning?

I am frightened...

But, I am also brave.

And, I am also free.

I cover my hands

With a wrap of Hope

And break more glass

Through some interior wall

To find a sole survivor:

Of no gender or name,

No age or color -

There is only an echo of sound and memory

Still struggling to comprehend

The loneliness of violence and hate.

Can we all be heroes today?

We can shed our shields

Of now-shaken and tarnished pride.

We can re-center our hearts,

And renew our vows

To face forward with our new minds.

Heroes are the many souls

In desperation

Getting up again.

Remember the sunshine - why not?

It did not become our enemy

On that broad blue day.

It, too, was just a witness

To humanity's hurting itself, again.

Don't blame the sun!

I want to be able to thank it over and over

For being present on the day

It should have disappeared.

I would not have wished

For a cloudy day

To blur the edges

Of such stark waste and anguish.

Perhaps clarity was there

For a reason...

Take a new look at the sun...

Remember each day

As it shines - and why.

Thank it for coming back, again.

Didn't it forgive and forget

Our ugliness and pain?

I want to be like the sun.

I want to shine warm and blue

And make a bright day,

And see clearly our pain and redemption,

In order to know what I might forget:

It is the beginning and the end

Of my obligation.