Everything Changed on Primary Day

By Valerie Maldonado

Bright, beautiful, sunny day

Primaries and Justin in kindergarten, 2nd day

We waited for him to be okay

Then headed to catch the train

Papo and I city bound

Train stalled on Williamsburg bridge

I was running a little late

Papo headed toward East Broadway

I exited on Broadway Nassau

Ambulances flying the wrong way

Thought a movie was being filmed

Walked toward One Liberty Plaza

Throngs of people looking up

I asked what was going on

Someone said a small plane went into One

One World Trade? That can’t be right

I looked up to a huge hole on the side

Reached my building right across

Watched disbelieving as people fell

Prayed real hard that help would come

Was about to enter when all of a sudden

A noise louder than any you’ve ever heard

Sounded the approach of a speeding plane

I can’t express how my heart and eyes froze

Debris rained down upon us all

Gasping we began to run

Tripping on people, and running in circles

Horrified by burned out cars

Trying to somehow understand

The world is ending someone yelled

Another one is coming was all I heard

I stopped nearby at the stock exchange

Waited online for a phone with no change

Someone handed me a quarter or two

I called Papo, he would know what to do

Frantically I cried and explained it all

Start walking toward the Seaport, he said

In a daze I made my way through

With thousand of others in a daze too

Somehow, someway he caught sight of me

Collapsing in his arms we made for South Street

When all of a sudden he said oh man

The whole thing is gone, it’s fallen down

Two World Trade where I once worked

Lay in a pile of stone, dust, and dirt

How many people my mind could not think

The silence of those exiting was deafening

A little while later we walked the bridge to get home

One World Trade had collapsed as well

On the bridge we walked very fast

When two Jet fighters suddenly passed

Surreal cannot begin to explain

All the happenings of that fateful day

Getting Justin from his second day

I thought of how lucky it was I’d been late

My friend Sherie and I would have been in the mezzanine

If I’d been on time and breakfasting

Meeting George and Melissa, I cried and cried

Everything changed that Primary Day

Seeing friend’s faces on the TV screen

Hearing my friends and family describe their own hell

I felt beyond fortunate to be alive and well

Returning to work a few days later

Encountering soldiers and new security layers

My desk was covered in thick, white dust

One side of the building was gutted out

The building was set up as a morgue

But sadly many were not brought up

Every voicemail I received gave me chills

Frantic voices haunt me still

Innocent people lost in many ways

Heroism everywhere on display

Ground zero, where souls are laid

God bless those who went in afraid

God bless their families for the price they paid

God bless the passengers on all the planes

God bless those throughout the World Trade

God bless America then and now

Maybe, just maybe we can turn things around

Twenty years later I have the luxury to reflect

While others mourn and ask us to never forget

Too much was lost in so many ways

Everything changed on Primary Day

Never forget 🙏🏻