The Ashes of Our Innocence

A song can be heard tonight Swirling about me beating down my strength Enfolding the whole of me with thick, terrifying captivation That chokes a city with the roaring thunder of despair Of the innocent obliterated in the unforgettable heartbeat When we died with our friends and families Slain from the once impossible that shattered our world Tossed aside the veil of our innocence forever I can stand no more and I fall My weary gaze heavenward for I have no answers With my heart weeping, my soul burning My mind alive with a desperately hungry vengeance I scream out all of my searing pain I scream out with every fibre, every pore of my being! I scream blinded by this maelstrom of emotion I scream! I SCREAM AND I SCREAM . . ! Until my voice runs ragged Until my anger simmers And here amid a shattered ruin I find inside the depths of my soul . . . That which is fierce in us all I stand and glare beyond the horizon Where I know the object of my hatred hides Feeling safe in his pit of woe “No,” I seethe “No,” I burn “No!” I say through clenched teeth “I will not falter! I will not give up! I will not give into the swallowing lament of night! I WILL NOT LET YOU BREAK ME! I will see you held accountable I will and I do defy you!! I DEFY YOU! And everything you represent!” I . . . I like my people, believe in a merciful God Our Lord forgives and loves us all And this is the God I believe in . . . But I am a man, just a man . . . And I cannot forgive you for this, I will not God may forgive you But I do not I . . . I hate you! For the lives you have destroyed! For the fear in my heart! I hate you for existing . . . I hate you because now I cannot help but to hate something It’s lonely where these towers have fallen And in this solitude I pick up a stone I move another stone and then another For I know not what else to do I find that this stone is not a part of the rubble I understand that I am not really clearing debris I am rebuilding And this dust covered stone now within my hands Is the first In a new foundation of our lives I see my friends Doing as I do, lifting one stone after another We are rebuilding our world Our ideals And I whisper to the horizon “Know this Today we mourned as people grieving for our loved one Tonight we mourn as a race having just lost our innocence Tomorrow we will mourn as people defiled by atrocity one last time But soon . . . We will weep and mourn no more And on that day We will end terror.”