9/11

"...It's early fall,
there's a cloud
on the New York skyline
Innocence,
dragged across
a yellow line..."

-from The Hands that Built America by U2

Yes... I remember. I remember pulling weeds. I worked second shift, as a printing press operator. I can still see the sunny day it was...in my back yard. Mick came out to me... I knew something was up, she seemed...different. Brian, you need to come in & see this. A plane just hit the World Trade Center. "what...like a little Cessna?" "No, like a passenger jet. You're not gonna believe it, just come see." As I watched... I saw a replay...& then a silhouette of another passenger jet... "Honey, there's another one." She didn't believe me at first, until the announcer said "oh, God, another one hit -a second plane just it the South Tower..." It was every channel...every radio station. I think the hole country, the world, were just begging to hear the death toll go down.

I watched the movie World Trade Center. I still am captivated, by the Marine, walking through the debris... [in a commanding, loud tone] "This is the United States Marines. If you can hear my voice, yell or tap." Over & over & Over again. He finally hears something. When he gets to talk to 2 port authority officers trapped 20 ft. below him, they ask him "...the Marines? what mission sends the Marines here??" ..."You are my mission." Boy, does that sound like Jesus... or what? Walking through the Hell... you find yourself in... to tell you.... the cross, was for you. You are His mission. You are the reason... why He bothered to come here... why He bothered to die... I heard someone say to me one day: "If Jesus was God - or is God - why didn't He save Himself?" "because if He had... He wouldn't have saved anyone else."
Is love crazy? ...you tell me.

I'm trying to write a poem for this....it just feels too big....for words.

I began with U2... so also, I will end with them...

Peace on Earth
[ from the disc All That You Can't Leave Behind]

Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I'm sick of
all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of pain
Sick of hearing
again and again
That there's gonna be
Peace on Earth...

...Jesus could you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones
who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No who's or whys
No-one cries
like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got
to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and Breda
Their lives are bigger, than any big idea...

...Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth?
This peace on Earth

Peace to you, wherever you are, whatever you are going through,
B.E. Noll