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10 years later

It feels like yesterday.

The Frozen Zone

Soft autumn breezes rattle

The first crackling leaves

Dancing in crazy spirals

Across the graying asphalt

Silted with ash

Slick with tears

A surreal montage

Helmets and hoses

Buckets and backhoes

Streaked faces etched in horror

Working, hoping, working

working

Debris flaming red as leaves

flutters the air

Amid unthinkable chaos,

A stillness grows

Enfolding souls lost

Souls at a loss

The world stops

Frozen in one aching moment

then another, and another

But soft autumn breezes rattle

The first crackling leaves

And redden warm child cheeks

Hands reaching hands

Holding tight

Holding tighter

and the thaw begins

In memory of those who lost their lives September 11

In hope for those they left behind

—Sue Pelletier, September 2001

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