NHSEagleI wanted to do something patriotic to remember 9/11 today, but something positive and meaningful.  I didn’t know what… until I received this poem in my inbox.  I’d like to welcome Angela Winfield to Dandilyon Fluff and a special, Wednesday edition Poetry Slam.

I’d like to invite everyone to share their own remembrances of 9/11 and patriotic poetry in the comments section.  I’ve included Angela’s bio after the poem.  Please welcome Angela Winfield, and enjoy her inspired offering.

You can also visit past Slams…

FALLEN

By Angela Winfield

You forced our hand, this battle against man

When you gave the child a gun,

Too heavy to hold, he could barely stand

With the weight of the world strapped to his shoulders

And a grenade in hand, his only solace

Are the brainwashed dreams of a Promised Land

He gives his life, in this grown mans fight

The pain he causes, the pain he’ll feel

When he pulls the pin, when he pulls the trigger

This is the last choice he’ll make; the decision is forever

With a small prayer he completes the plan

The mind of a child does not comprehend

Now a page of history, a moment in time

The torturous hell we all felt

Forever images burned in our mind

What choice do we have with innocent involved?

As children we watched the towers fall

Filled with adrenalin and soaring high

An explosion shatters the silent night

He gave his life and there he lies

Waiting to be identified

With eyes forever open, the darkness sets in

The easy part is over, now it begins

Smoke and genocide choke the air

The please for help, the wails of despair

The screams that no one can here

Consumed in darkness, consumed in fear

But now a page of history, a moment in time

The torturous hell we all felt

Forever images burned in our mind

What choice do we have with innocent involved?

We watched the towers fall

But this fight is a grown mans war!

Your warriors are the sheep you swore

To protect their minds, from the rest of us and yet

You rein upon the people a religion of death

A people with out a choice, with out a voice

With out a thought like a robotic moth

They flee to the flame, and burn in the name of faith

Suffering the leadership of a man

Born without reasoning, born with a plan

Bent on hate in the name of faith

Against the weak you dominate

Through lightening wars, you discriminate

We’ve seen you before, we know your face

The same soul a different shape

The story repeats itself, and in the end

Good will rise again and again

‘For we will not fear you or bow in hesitation

We a free people a free nation!

Now a page of history, a moment in time

The torturous hell we all felt

Forever images burned in our mind

What choice do we have with innocent involved?

As children we watched the towers fall.

About the author: 

I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and lived there until my early thirties. In November of 2011 the Air Force moved my husband and three children to Niceville, Florida.

From the moment we stepped on the plane and for the past two years everything has gone wrong. Many of my fears came to reality and it was then that I realized, that it’s in my weakness, I am strong.

I am afraid of everything, but what makes me strong, is that I face my fears everyday. I will overcome every time and over and over again if need be. Here I was faced with: new cultures, a boggy environment, bugs that look like a cross between a large cockroach and Satan, loss of family income, a potential divorce and death and my past. I have never felt closer to my potential.

For me, Niceville has become the beauty and the beast metaphor that is my life. It was here in that I rediscovered my love of writing and my passion to become an influential, published author. I have written two children’s books and am in the process of publishing them both. I have written poetry and submitted song lyrics to the International Song Writers Competition and have other projects on the burners.

By Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

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