This morning in school we hear the big boom,
and Teacher tells us get our things and let’s go,
‘cause there’s a fire.

When I walk down the street with the other kids
I turn around. The birds are on fire,
I tell Teacher, but she says, don’t look back,
just keep walking. But I turn around again.

The tall building has smoke coming out,
like when I draw a chimney in art class.
I see angels holding hands, dancing through the air.
Then a big orange ball comes out of the other building
like a flower in a tall vase, and I hear another big boom.
I know it’s a fire.

Papers are flying down all around like butterflies.
I think they were somebody’s homework.
Some funny gray snow is falling,
and a bad smell hurts my nose.
Gray people are running and screaming and crying,
like they lost their mommy or daddy,
or somebody bad scared them.
Some of them are bleeding.
I see lots of fire trucks coming up the street.
Their sirens are real loud. I like fire trucks.

When I get home, Mama gives me a big hug.
She is watching a show on TV
about airplanes flying into the buildings.
When they fall down, they look like
my sand castles on the beach,
when the ocean comes and knocks them down.

I say to Mama, did the pilots make a mistake?
Mama just shakes her head.
She says, lots of people died today.
I say, doesn’t Aunt Maria work
in one of those buildings?
And Mama starts to cry.
It’s okay, I say. I’m sure she’s all right.
Maybe she just got lost.

At night I ask God
to please find my Aunt Maria,
and help all the dead people get to Heaven.
I ask God to make all the birds and angels that fell
go back to the sky,
and to put all the bad fires out.

10/07/2001

Posted on 10/07/2001
Copyright © 2024 Bruce W Niedt