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Echoes of Silence
by Gary Kennedy

To those silent voices;
Unable to utter the defiance of their last moments:

She sat at a desk, jotting in a daily planner.
They sat in the boardroom, planning the deal of the day.
They faxed, they e-mailed, shredded that importance of the moment, that would
soon be trivial. The makers of the big deal, the movers and shakers, all
soon and suddenly neutralized.

They sat calmly, waiting to taxi out. A pilot's voice shouts over the drone,
"We are #3 for take off." Those passengers aboard the plane to hit the
towers, staring out the windows for the last glance of Beantown's skyline,
what a beauty!

That Hancock tower reaches out to the pinnacle of Boston's panorama. One
passenger with a thick, Irish Boston twang, exclaims "Yeah, I know it ain't
the big twins but it is Bawstin's pride."

It would be the ride of all plane rides, a sad swan song for all.
That morning they had boarded a guided missile to their ending, their
ultimate sad destinies!

Down the 1100 ft. sheer face, the window washer with an artful sweep of his
squeegee, performs for thousands, above Broadway. No booking agent here, no
actor's equity or dress rehearsal, for his performance!
His venue 'seats' the millions, that gaze to the heavens toward the seeming
invincibility of silver twins, to witness the performance of a mad man
on the scaffold. So many have watched over the years, so many have glanced
up to get their bearings!


Above all, the grand-dames, the Goliath monoliths shimmering. A testament to
the place they dwell, that we rise above all, and were the masters of all they
survey.


Could the sea of humanity in her twins know the carnage that would ensue?
I think not. Could we imagine in our naiveté that these two symbols of our
time would wither in an instant? What voice of warning would have been
heeded, what conference call, e-mail, what rider on horseback from village to
village sounding the alarm!
"To arms, to arms! The Redcoats are coming!" and this morning's sky would
turn a fire red! Ten thousand bull horns maybe, but this time it would not be
the Redcoats, that would wreak havoc upon our innocence!



An unbridled hate had seized the moment, to deliver the message that some
needed to pay. For all the fear of scarcity from oppression, totalitarianism,
warped sense of justification. They come, from another world, time and space,
to send a message, to all.  Not some disco in Israel, or some obscure far off
place we could measure in the evening's sound bite.  This was an attack on
Mayberry, mom and apple pie.


The perfect crime, in deed and execution, with the total capitulation of
most. Yes, in that moment something in America was still the same, 100 meters ahead
of that plane before it redefined us as a people, the small distances, no,
there is no going back.  No going back to a Sunday trip to the mall, hop on board a
shuttle to Las Vegas for a night of decadence, it has all changed.


The mind sees the missiles and disbelieves the visual.  These planes didn't
just do what I think they did! This was just a preview for some action
thriller. No, it's live, wake up America, it's time to pay, say they.
This mess is gonna take more than "Thing-one and Thing-two" to clean up, says
the "Cat in the Hat."

The foot of violence has dealt the blow to my groin, I wither and sit
waiting for the pain to subside.  We want it all back, we want it all to go
away as if it had never happened.

Please God, tell me this hasn't happened.  Where are you, my beloved, inane
"Gary Condit," top news and local human interest story?
Can we even remember the name of the missing intern?
"Hey buddy, what was the score of the Yankee's game," and who would care.
"Hey buddy, I am lost somewhere in Manhattan. I can't get my bearings
they're gone from the sky." The twins have fallen. Just the dark plume of
smoke rising and the silence. Along with them America as we knew it just 100 meters
in front of those planes

I am not sure if it worked or not, that hole left in the ground, has left a
hole in all of us on some level, a darkness, larger in some, but a change in
all, from lost employment, changed relationships, different habits. We have
all been harmed, and it isn't over yet!

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