Editor Note: As all of us tried to heal from the national wound that was 9/11, I was privileged to get to know the editors at Etruscan Press. They were planning a 9/11 poetry anthology to capture the monumental outpouring of writing about that day. One poem—Messages From the Sky by Fred Moramarco— of the many good ones, stood out for me, so I decided to encase them in two glass ‘towers’ and take them to New York for the one year ceremony. On September 11, 2002 they were placed in a church near Ground Zero, and continued to be displayed in a window near Times Square for another six months.
The original poem was set up as twin columns, as were the glass constructions for the first year memorial. Our formatting, however, will not allow us to present the poem this way, but I have placed a break to indicate the column separateness. These are the original line lengths. ~James Dissette
Messages from the Sky, September 11, 2001
by Fred Moramarco
From the towers, from the planes,
Love, and again, love.
Stuart Meltzer from the 105th floor, to
his wife: “Honey, something terrible
is happening. I don’t think I’m going
to make it. I love you. Take care of
the children.” From the Towers, from
the planes, Love, and again, love.
Brian Sweeney from Flight 175 that
shattered the South Tower, turned
lives to gray ash: “Hey Jules, it’s
Brian, I’m on a plane and it’s
hijacked and it doesn’t look good. I
just wanted you to know I love you
and I hope to see you again. If I
don’t, please have fun in life and live
your life the best you can. Know that
I love you and no matter what, I’ll
see you again.” From the Towers,
from the planes, Love, and again,
love. Kenneth Van Auken from the
102nd floor: “I love you. I’m in the
World Trade Center. And the
building was hit by something. I don’t
know if I’m going to get out. But I
love you very much. I hope I’ll see
you later. Bye.” From the Towers,
Love, from the planes, love.
Mark Bingham from Flight 93
before it crashed into a field near
Pittsburgh: “Hi Mom, this is Mark.
We’ve been taken over. There are
three men that say they have
a bomb. I love you, I love you,
I love you.” From the Towers, from
the planes, Love, and again, love.
Moises Rivas, a chef at the Windows
on the World: “I’m 0. K.-don’t worry.
I love you no matter what. I love
you.” Love from the Towers, love
from the planes. Jeremy Glick from
Flight 93 to his wife Lyzbeth: “I love
you, I love Emmy. Please take care
of her. Whatever decisions you
make in your life, I need you to be
happy and I will respect any
decisions you make.” From Thomas
Burnett on Flight 93: “1 know we’re all
going to die; there’s three of us who
are going to do something about it. I
love you honey.” From Daphne
Bowers, somewhere in the Towers,
“Mommy, the building is on fire,
there’s smoke coming through the
walls, I can’t breathe. I love you
Mommy, goodbye.” To mothers and
wives, to husbands and friends, to
fathers and lovers, to brothers and
sisters, to aunts and uncles, to the
inert tapes of answering machines:
Love from the towers, Love from the
planes, from the towers and the
planes, Love and again, love,
“I love you Mommy, goodbye.”
Copywrite 2002 Fred Moramarco/Etruscan Press
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