steel

This morning I touched steel

the heavy red primed steel used to build something

anchored in concrete and bolted to others just like it

holes drilled in connection plates and heavy welds for reinforcement.

this was steel used for something big, something to remember

but this steel was also twisted and scarred with deep impressions, scratches and gouges.

these were not going into a building, they had been in a building

this steel was from something big, towers that reached the sky and I remember being at the top of one of them

The three pieces lay on a raised concrete platform and as I walked around,

I whispered the names and the towns of people from my county who died when this steel collapsed.

I also remember watching them come down.

and I remember the hate and madness of the radical islamic murderers that day

This morning, in the rain, I touched steel and remembered.