Remembering September 11

I Saved a Life Tonight

By Amy Woods

(September 12, 2001 - 1:30 a..m.)

I saved a life tonight

Covered with ash, eyes blood shot and unseeing

What happened?

I was just going to work

Same as always

Never the same again.

I saved a life tonight

Hero in yellow with so much to carry

So strong, so able -- promising life

He climbed to hell and I ran down to heaven.

15, 23, 46 flights, thousands of steps

Sweat smelling of hope running down his back

Heavy breath then …

Able no more.

I saved a life tonight

Unable to take another step

Exhausted and red unable to breathe

I slung her over my shoulder

Ran like a tiger. Strength from God.

I saved a life tonight

Alone in my room – safe and comfortable

Close my eyes. I can’t watch anymore.

Why?

Why!

And in the night, now still with no sound.

I heard the voices grow. Each asking “Why?”

I found them and carried each to his home

Mother, Father, Wife, Husband and Child

Crying with joy

Holding their own.

And when I was through

Nothing was left

But steel, ashes and

Four twisted jets

And the "Whys" piled high in the middle.

I wrote this seven years ago after an entire day of watching the news alone. My husband at the time was not in town - he was a federal marshal and I'm not sure where he was called to but I was keenly aware of how alone I was. I had not cried the entire day but then around eleven that night, finally broke down when I watched a young reporter lose it on air. I'm really not a poet but for some reason I wrote this and this is the first time I am sharing it. I took this picture of the Twin Towers on my first visit to New York City in 1996. I went there on a Saturday - not a soul was there and laid on the ground and looked up to take the shot.

I will never forget September 11.