Back

9-11
by Robert Wilbur
New York, New York

Distant, empty streets greeting the empty sky
Where New York's pride once stood.
Heavy clouds of smoke and destruction covering the place
from which stunned and frightened masses fled
travel east carrying the smell of death to Brooklyn's shores.

Buried beneath
the broken walls,
the fallen towers,
the unsuspecting,
hopes and plans,
and those who went to save them
remaining to be found only in parts
among the twisted metal, concrete, paper and plastic snow.

Growing still the cloud that overtakes the land and unsuspecting hearts,
Who would join their power to the darkness
to give the fear and hate of the martyred lost the appearance of a greater
victory.

Experiencing for themselves the daily truths of others' lives
in countries and conditions weaker than our own,
They give themselves to the darkness
which give revenge and angered victory
only to the broken who will remain to fight on the torture wheel.

But darkness is only overcome by Light,
Where we are joined to each other,
to those who suffer and are missed,
where everyone is whole
Loves' victory is real.

Now is clear
The battle we must fight
To join the darkness,
to be drawn to argument or false action
Or
with God's help to bring the healing water,
hold to the Light.

Robert Wilbur is a vocal minister among Friends (Quakers). He is the Assistant Clerk of Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and an active participant in Brooklyn Monthly Meeting, where he lives.

Wilbur reports that Prospect Park in Brooklyn today is more full of families than he has seen it in all of his years in New York giving the unmistakable impression of its being a Holy Day. He also reports that the Friends' burial grounds in Prospect Park is littered with debris from the World Trade Center towers, which stood 2 or 3 miles away.