Circling the place where the World Trade Center would be

Circling the place where the Twin Towers would be

We sailed around Manhattan in 1956,

Me, my mother and a tourist-loaded ship,

Skyscrapers looming over me – I was just five

I wanted to climb each one and touch the sky

Sunlight glittering on each pane of glass

Reflections of the wide world as we passed.

Circling the place where the Twin Towers would be

Looking for things we could never see

From my third floor bedroom window I could always see

An horizon so jagged I thought it was teeth,

But sailing among them I could barely breathe

Sea sick from looking up, not from the sea

My head jerking up and down as if on a whip

I never felt so dizzy as I did on that trip

Circling the place where the Twin Towers would be

Looking for vision I was too young to see

Stuffed on hotdogs and gallons of air

My mouth sagged open at all that was there

Each was an apple of my over awed eye

As our boat sailed along passing each one by

Gurgling hudson into which I might dip my toes

Had mother not yanked me back by the tip of my nose

Circling the place where the Twin Towers would be

Looking for a dream I could not possibily dream

Later while working Hudson’s Jersey side

I saw the Twin Towers rise high in the sky

Higher and more awesome than all before

I staggered to see them even on this shore

Two fingers of fate points up towards the moon

Where man had just landed and would return soon

Circling the place where the Twin Towers were

Feeling as small as I did years before

Flames flew out the side of the Tower I watched

Safe behind the Palisades where we had flocked

Shocked at the smoke that rose from them both

Two smoldering giants withering like rope

No one dare say that was the end of the world

Yet pieces of our lives were caught in its whirl

Circling the place where the Twin Towers once were

Lost in a dust cloud and a shimmering blur