Artists Registry

In 2001, I was a senior at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. Since many students at my school had parents or siblings who worked in the city, the September 11th attacks hit close to home. At the same time, we were far enough from the epicenter of the event that it was possible to think about 9/11 with a certain degree of distance.

At 17, I'll admit that my greatest worries were not about the immediate effects of 9/11--the depth and magnitude of human loss, the need for environmental and economic recovery-- but about the effects it would have on the future of the nation and the world I was about to enter as a young adult.

I knew then that 9/11 would be a catalyst, but so much would depend on what it would catalyze. Would our government act rashly? Would our citizens, blinded by fear or patriotism, turn against members of the international and American communities for reasons based solely on race or creed? I remembering fearing the repetition of the terrorist catastrophe less than I did the slow and methodical unraveling of everything I valued about the world I was to inherit. My greatest desire was to ensure a future based on careful consideration of the past.

This poem is an artifact of that moment of personal reflection and resolve, written in September of 2001. It was published in the high school literary magazine, Echoes , in 2002.