An earsplitting outcry erupts, the ground begins to tear. Irate, raging conflagration engulfs, savagely feasting, releasing its anger in two individual rendezvous'.

So the city is struck by an unworthy blade,

And the towers begin to quiver and fade,

As people stand lost in the fear of fate,

Their ideals shatter; helpless, irate.

Clouds commence and engulf the sky; the sovereignty is trapped in a barrier of fog. Dusk blocks all waves of illumination, a black hole taking rapture. Slowly, the dark consumes all that still lingers in dead ether. The shade which had once been a sanctuary, is now a tomb.

Then darkness consumes their lurid souls,

Dissipating into nothing; empty black holes,

Those who struggle, grasping their life,

Lost amidst the dust of this terrible strife.

Darkness chokes shadows into obliteration. No light of hope illuminates our world, now in devastation and ruin. We promenade slowly, our eyes never blinking. Our hearts hammer, and our souls howl. Never, in our most baneful dreams, would any of us imagine what is now set before our eyes. Vile are the beings who betrayed us; we were deceived by foul creatures.

Towards oblivion; the inevitable dance,

Towards the fog of death, our minds entranced,

Merciless flames that turn red in the skies,

Those malignant demons before our eyes.

The thunder trembles in my chest as I move quickly down the stairs. Debris shatters beneath my feet as I advance. I am breathing in the air of expiration. The dust

swells over the disheartening battle scene; only small shards of dispeling light enter from the outer world. Screaming is swarming over-head, and the reverberating footsteps are like bees inside my chest.

Tempestuous disturbance in reality's calm,

Dust in the air like sand blown from a palm,

Ethereal blades of angelic light; the final hope,

Yet still in the choking mist we forlornly grope.

All is blood, all is desolation. Dismembered bodies all around us, we are out-numbered. My heart beats faster and faster. My sanity is at the brink. I cannot take it anymore. The heartrending agony. The fact that my heart beats and theirs does not. We sprint out, to feel the release of our prison that had once been a home.

The taste of death suspended in the air,

Tainted by the metal, dust and dispair,

We escape the dark, but not the night,

For our souls wretch at the horrific sight.

We scavenge through the debris, searching for signs of mortality. We return to find blood, flowing over the soil, as if a drunken man had spilled red wine all over our sacred ground.

Intoxicated by dreams of perpetual dominion,

Misleading innocents into the war of opinion,

The ground is stained with the wine of humanity,

Imprinted on my memory, this inane profanity.

They sleep on tinted red ground. The shine of the moonlight makes the dead glow a ghastly pearl. Their eyes stare into the darkness, never letting go. The clothes that had once warmed a body are now a cocoon, saving flesh from cannibals. This is a time of blood. Anguish kills these mortals, nothing else. It is all lost, the sanity, the light, the tranquillity, all departed, lost in the bleakness of it all, lost to vengeance that was meaningless, only to cause rupturing pain.

This empty vengeance fissures the stricken land,

Humanity's hope destroyed by humanity's hand,

Reflections in the grimly glistening eyes of the dead,

Radiant stars keep vigil, knowing of troubles ahead.

The towers are gone and the hope burnt out, long since after those who orbited were destroyed. The last flicker of flame is blown out by two cool metals and thrown across impressible flowers, falling limply to the soil of the expired land. Their eyes are left open, staring unabashedly into the starry night, now grieving for its injustice.

Bloody petals take flight in the turbulence,

Soaring towards the future's ambivalence,

The heartless nations and passionate savages,

All feeling the pain of this attack's ravages.

Solemn is his face, a tear forms in his eye. Turning slowly, he faces his companions. Their attention is his; each of their eyes holds his suffering as well. The President swallows hard, trying to control his grief, then glances toward the sky for answers.

Shocked by this intrusion onto our sacred glades,

Ardent rage for a deed that will never be repaid,

The dead are grieved and the living in pain,

Their memories, lost, like tears in the rain.

The sun submerses in mundane existence, taking what is left of humanity. Shadows disperse across my land, spreading desire for those who yearn to perceive as they once did. The obscurity consumes everything in its path, devouring it, and holding it until daybreak. As the night walks away it plunders the hearts of millions. The despairing of mortals is seen throughout the world. They can only stare at the visions, watching the devastation over and over again.

Their lucid ghosts weep under the moon,

Sickened by agony; night departs soon,

We are lonely survivors, no enemy to fight,

Yet embracing the dawn, our spirits unite.

The sun rises and it is a new day, the sight grasps us, ever remembering this moment. We are awed by the lives we live, by the marvels and mysteries life will hand us tomorrow, giving us a new day to realize life does go on. Still, we hear the stories, perceive the loss, feel it in ourselves, and in others, because of this unforgivable catastrophe, all the earth is numb.

By: Wome and Fox