Until We Rise

                                                 They stood, teetering, on the window sills,
                                                 97 stories or 100 stories high,
                                                 and then, looking back
                                                 into the smoke and flames,
                                                 they held hands and jumped
                                                       hurling
                                                                    spinning
                                                             careening
                                                                                 tumbling
                                                 through miles of open air
                                                 until they landed here,
                                                 in our hearts, where we
                                                 dig through the rubble
                                                 of our lives
                                                 to find them
                                                 and reach in, taking their hands in ours,
                                                 until we rise with them
                                                 from the Land of the Dead
                                                 into the new life we promise to become.

                                                                      © Pesha Joyce Gertler