FORTY ORDINARY PEOPLE

Forty ordinary people
became heroes on that given day
11 September 2001
United Flight 93
10:06 a.m.
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
20 handsome men
20 beautiful women
made the ultimate sacrifice
and brought the message
that freedom has always
been worth fighting for
From all walks of life
little did these
forty ordinary people
know on that morning
they would change
the solitude of the mountains
and fields of that town
their choice to defend
and protect our liberties
while leaving behind
lives as they knew them
their children, wives, husbands,
their parents, friends, and country
The rubble has long since been
cleared away, new grass planted
A once quiet town now has
visitors from all over
busloads of people down
an old country lane
If you blink an eye
you just might miss it
A once ordinary town
Forty ordinary people
A feeling of serenity overcomes
you as you gaze at the
American flag in the middle
of the hallowed ground
You see the sight from a short distance
for it is reserved for the families now
It's peaceful there and
the message that's left behind
etched in our hearts and memory
to be remembered forever
their courage, their bravery
Forty ordinary people
Forty ordinary people
Heroes

©Copyright September 7, 2007 by Janet Rattay

This past week I was able to go on a one day bus trip to Shanksville, Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed on 9/11. It was so overwhelming to be there that it prompted the poem, Forty Ordinary People.