We Are Gray

A note from Mike: After we were attacked on 9/11/01 I wrote the following poem. It captured for me both the sense of anger the USA felt at being attacked as well as the sense of unity the country felt for a period afterwards. I recorded a new reading of it yesterday for my latest podcast. Thought I'd break it out by itself for today and reprint the poem here, in commemoration of the anniversary and those we lost.

We Are Grey

When the Great Buildings collapsed,

Hit by the fists of Bin Laden,

The clouds of billowing dust

Coated the running escaping.

Many were killed in the blasts,

Innocents used by Bin Laden.

Better, then, covered in dust,

Then lost in the ruins of the breaking.

After the vicious attacks

By the cowardly demon Bin Laden,

All of them, covered in dust,

Coughing, and choking, and shaking…

Today we all are gray.

The dust took the color away.

No black, no white – the same.

We are gray today – the same.

When the terrorists hit,

Did they give a shit

About colors, race or creed?

We’re all gray… and red we bleed.