where were you

WHERE WERE YOU
thats a question that i wished i had asked my
grandparents on both sides
my parents
where were you when that life changing thing
happened for the country
when the japanese bombed pearl harbor
when roosevelt spoke those words on the radio
for all to hear across the country
forever embedded in their brains those words
and what it all meant

in my lifetime
there have been at least three of those events
i remember exactly where i was
when it all happened

when kennedy was shot and died
i was in american history class after lunch
i remember the person sitting in front of me
i was 13 years old
i remember our teacher telling us with tearful eyes
i remember the feeling and the tears that day

when martin luther king was shot and died
i remember where i was
we were camping a group of friends at a lake
having skipped school that day
we heard it on the radio
some of them were happy it happened
i felt otherwise
i think i realized what all this meant
it probably started my brain thinking differently
about race and america


when 9/11 happened
i was in my office
having just seen a patient
i was sitting at the desk doing the chart
we all sought out a tv
to see the pictures
it felt like
i guess
what my grandparents felt that day in december
years ago
a life changing event

just a few years before on a trip to new york
we me and my family had stood on the street
outside the twin towers

seeing those planes flying into the towers
is and always will be burned into my brain
oh how it changed our world
not for the good im afraid

how come it takes tragedies to bring our country together

we are still in two wars that were triggered because
of this event
with no end in sight

the whole world changed that day
never ever to be the same

where were you

the organicgreen doctor