I wrote this five years ago, in shock, in remembrance:

Freedom

When dust settles

After the fury of ravaged steel

Lies rumpled in unconscious heaps

It stands

Hesitating

Interrupted only by quiet tears

And muffled sorrows

When lives resume

After the coffins drop one by one

Into the unforgiving earth

It stands

Tentatively

Shoulders above triviality

Mocking insignificance

When Spring rains replace September’s frost

After inky nights of barren thoughts

Of death, of why

It stands

Immovable

Waving its tattered flag

Erected by tears of immortals left behind