September Eleventh, 2021

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I stepped off the bus and felt the weight
Of my heavy backpack and the afternoon heat;
something was wrong.
My mom was waiting there, and so were everyone else's
to break the news of September eleventh.

Twenty years passed.
Our nation went to war in the sand
And kept a watchful eye in the sky.
Over purple mountains' majesty
and amber waves of grain
it will never be the same.
The Nineties are forever gone,
homeland insecurity remains.

I stepped off my bunk and felt the weight
of seven years in jail that week;
everything is fine.
My mom picked up on the first ring, and I asked:
"Do you remember September eleventh?"

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