A Day To Remember
I watched the sun creep up and paint the sky in blood
I watched the clouds cover the wounds and shade the skyline in a gray flood
I stood and gazed as I realized that planes weren’t always made of paper,
But that planes always burn
As if it were in slow motion he fell to the floor
Each vowel became elongated as his screams shook the ground
I heard the words of a friend sink in the car
As we drove near the holocaust he pictured his father underneath tar
And that was the day innocence left this city’s heart
The ashes, they rained down from the clouds
It was someone’s Fourth of July in this town
I was young, to me they were just fireworks
But it was September; maybe I just didn’t know how the calendar worked
My mother had a moment of great rebirth
As the fires grew she tried to pull my roots from the Earth
I contemplated with a wiser man,
He told me that he saw war, that these firestorms were only a prelude to more
I was young, I pictured the enemy advancing their pieces on the Risk board
I used to wonder if they chose the highest building
So we would have less to look up to
But I’ve grown since, and now I know
That the bodies wrapped in burning steel
Have hardened at the bottom of the river
But the shrapnel from the metal
Is stuck in our streets
And there’s a whole new set of bright eyes that don’t know what this burning sensation means
