Mere Dust

The dust covered everything

My furniture

My countertops

My car

It became grimy streaks covering my windows

It collected in corners of my rooms

It filled my lungs causing

Me to cough incessantly

Turning my mucous secretions black

No sooner would I wipe it up

Then it would cover everything again

It smelled like smoke

Permeating my clothes and my soul

This was not mere dust

This dust settled into my home and life

From a raging inferno forty miles away

In lower Manhattan

3,000 souls were released

That morning

Turning their bodies into the dust surrounding me

My heart was torn into ragged pieces

Every time I cleaned the dust and

Rinsed it down the sink

This was wrong

Wrong

Wrong

Their families deserved better

Our world deserved better

This was not just mere dust

It was husbands and daddies and wives and mommies

It was brothers and sisters and sons and daughters

It was us

It was not just mere dust

Julie O’Hara 2024