This day one year ago
We were enraptured by the everyday,
The frivolous, the ordinary,
Everything was relevant,
Caught up in the beauty of a sky 
About to grace us with its rain,
Oblivious to the terror 
That would fall from her tomorrow,

If only we could hold it back,
And live the eternal day before,
Getting ever closer,
But never reaching the fatal date,

If only the death of 
the innocent thousands
Had half the impact 
of the planes,
Changing us forever,
Not in hatred,
Nor in actions,
But in taking back that innocence
That was lost long before 
those buildings were,

If only we lived each day 
In remembrance of that one,
Not frozen in our mourning,
Nor thirsting for appeasement,

If only we made their deaths
Less wasteful
By understanding the irony,

But this is not the nature of men,
We were changed, 
But we?ll always be the same,
The mighty heroes of 
Blood, white, and blue,
Answering tragedy with bullets,
Waving their scar-spangled banner
In the faces of the prisoners,

Let it ripple in the lukewarm wind,
The collective final breath of all 
The children you have murdered,
Put it high for all to witness,
That God may find you when he comes,

Smug in your self-righteousness,
In your amber waves of pain,
And to the republic, for which it stands,
One nation,
Under bombs,
With liberty and justice 
For all but the arabs,

Oh, say does your war-mangled banner 
Yet wave, o?er the land of the free,
And the home of the depraved?
Pledge your violence to the flag,
To the good old blood white and blue,
Until the day justice 
comes looking for you.