“Come home, my love, come home!” I beg
on the phone. “Where are the kids?” you ask
hurriedly. “Phil is at school, Al was
late for class again, and is now stuck
in traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel
on the Jersey side.”
“Thank God for that,” you sigh.
On William Street, your office’s windows
three blocks from the Towers, allow you
a full view of the conflagration. “I see them,”
you whisper mournfully, “burning
like two Roman Candles. Last year this time,”
you say, “I was there, on the ninetieth floor,
meeting with a client.” I grip my cell phone
and try to keep my wits, but tears are streaming
on my face, and my mind is racing to find
a way to get you home.
“The South Tower is struggling,” you say.
“I don’t think it can stand much longer.”
The certainty in your voice makes me realize
yours is not a guess but the professional opinion
of an engineer. “Lord, there could be over
fifty thousand people there. I can see flames
going floor by floor, charring everything.
The building trembles; glass is busting out,
concrete, pulverized, cascades from it,
and fragments float away like flakes. It sputters
smoke and sparks. It’s going to pancake.”
“Come home! Get out of there,” I sob.
All of a sudden, there is a tremendous boom,
and the phone line goes dead.
Author’s note: The phone lines in that part of Manhattan were destroyed at that exact time. My husband made it home that day. It took him many hours walking through the singed streets, the clouds of soot, and falling debris, frightened and angry like the rest of us. The poem’s dialogue is almost word by word the conversation I had with my husband at the time the towers were burning.
Ana Doina’s work has appeared in numerous national and international print and online magazines, anthologies, and textbooks. Her chapbook, The Later Generation, published by Kelsay Books, and her full-length book of poems, Legend of Bread, published by Legacy Press Books, were released in 2024. Her book Coming to America: Stories and Essays, to be published by Histria Books, is scheduled for release in October 2026.
