Trying to Fly

I wrote this poem after watching the footage of 9/11 and hearing survivors tell their stories of that day. The impact of those images and those testimonies inspired me to write this poem about the choices we are forced to make when our choices are limited. This poem is dedicated to all those who died that day including the heroes whose jobs led them to their deaths, those who never had a chance at survival and those who chose to jump

Trying to Fly

Maybe I can fly

Maybe He will catch me

Maybe I will fall through the holes in His hands

Maybe I can be

one with the sky

for one last time

Maybe I can fly

All I know is I don't want the same fate

as the horrors I hear, their screams excruciate

and I must find a means of escape

The heat ever rising

The flames terrorizing

Promising to burn me alive as I wait to be saved

Why should I have peace?

Why should I be saved

when so many are suffering, dying all around me?

Why should I be denied a choice

to die by trying to fly?

At least I can die imagining

that I am a bird or an angel with wings

in those last seconds of reckoning

Perhaps someone will find what remains of me

Perhaps this will give peace to my family

All I know is that I can't find a way out of this hell that has found me

other than taking to the sky

Perhaps I'll die in flight

Perhaps the angels will reveal themselves to me

and help me leave my body before it hits the concrete

There is no stairway to life that I can descend

Evil has blocked all exits

except for the last freedom that I now express

as I take this last step from the ledge