9/11 Poem: Messages from the Sky by Fred Moramarco

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