for the past month,
and my husband and co-workers could vouch,
EVERYTIME i check the time randomly,

it is 9:11.

i didn’t know whether to be freaked out by it or not.

last night, when it happened as usual,
and i exclaimed,
“OMG, what is going on here!”
i remembered that today is the day.

maybe i was getting a reminder.
i was supposed to stop and think of the room full
of scared teenagers in a high school english class
or the scared look on my teacher’s face
when she cancelled class and stared

maybe i was supossed to remember that day that i went home
and it hit me that thousands of people were now without families.
and i felt guilty for being safe.

i am grateful to be where i am, to live where i live,
and to have the freedom we do.

i hope that the worst is over.

[and i can’t believe it took 8 years
to make this day a holiday…]