Swans

Memorial

WTC bombing, New York, September 2001

by Alma A. Hromic

October 1, 2001

It doesn't matter what I was. The essence of me
has fled into the empty sky, dust to the dust
of the steel-and-glass wreckage when the towers fell.
It doesn't matter who I was, or what my name was,
or what I was doing in the place of fire when the hour struck
of its shattering. What matters is the stories people tell
of the aftermath of the dying, and what people say
when they talk of the disaster, and what people will do
when they roar wounded revenge in my name.
Let not my everlasting memory be some other mother's tears
and more blood and ashes in this sad old world –
let my memorial be justice, and not shame.

Alma Hromic, the author with R. A. Deckert of Letters from the Fire, was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. However she has lived outside her native country for much of her life: Zambia, Swaziland, South Africa, the UK and New Zealand. Trained as a microbiologist, she spent some years running a scientific journal, and later worked as an editor for an international educational publisher. Her own publishing record includes her autobiography, Houses in Africa, The Dolphin's Daughter and Other Stories, a bestselling book of three fables published by Longman UK in 1995, as well as numerous pieces of short fiction and non-fiction. Her latest novel, the first volume of a fantasy series, Changer of Days: The Oracle, was published in September 2001 by Harper Collins. Recently, Hromic won the much coveted BBC online short story competition. Her story, The Painting, was broadcast in the UK in the last week of January 2001.

Please, DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This material is copyrighted, © Alma A. Hromic 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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