RHS Students Compose 9/11 Poem for Ceremony

Editor's note:This is the poem two Rockville High School students read aloud at the Sept. 11 commemorative ceremony on Sunday on the steps of Town Hall. 

"Out of the Ashes"

by Logan LeDuc and Mikaela Adams

Before 9/11, the Twin Towers were just another skyscraper,

Another building, another symbol of American prosperity.

But with its collapse came new heroes.

I am the firefighter.

While everyone ran away, I ran up.

I pulled away more debris; I pulled away survivors.

I tried to save the lost.

I am the wife who heard "I love you" before the line disconnected.

And after the television reported there were no survivors on the plane,

I set a plate even though I knew he'd never come home.

I am the passenger whose life was saved because I missed my flight.

I am the secretary whose goodbye that morning was my last.

I am the businessman who dragged a bleeding co-worker down 45 flights of stairs.

I am the reporter who tried to make sense of the unimaginable.

And we learned to live without the lost.

343 firefighters and paramedics

1,402 workers lost in Tower

1,614 lost in Tower

223 New York police officers

1,717 families who received no remains

2,819 lives whose stories ended on that day.

We all remember where were were

the day the world held its breath. The Day America united.

I am the architect that watched my creation fall to its knees.

United we stand, and united we stood.

We will remember the stories and build a foundation for the future that is indivisible and indestructible ...

Our memory

Our spirit will never be destroyed.

We are the Twin Towers

Of the past and present.

Towers of strength, towers of faith.

That can never be erased.

A firefighter, a civilian, a soldier, an 80th floor worker ... all lost that day.

I will remember my story.

I will never forget your story.

I will never forget their stories.

Though it took a disaster to unite us,

Though people lost their lives, there is beauty in the smoke.

Terrorism creates the fire, but greatness arises from the ashes.

And we are no longer lost.