.
Rushing into flames
Without hesitation
Brotherhood undaunted
Prideful obligation

Answering all calls
Both night and day
Preserving multitudes
Arriving without delay

Unheralded heroes
Long is your line
Unparalleled dedication
Loyalty for all time

Fate unforeseen
September morning
Cloudless sky above
Routine day forming

Airborne calamity
Striking swiftly
Ruinous assault
Conducted obliquely

Two hundred units total
Half the city's resource
Those on duty and not
FDNY answered en force

Howl of the sirens
Ring of the bells
Headlong to battle
Towards awaiting hell

Flames burning up high
People trapped or lost
Window divers falling
Exodus at any cost

Onwards and upwards
Scaling twin towers
Leading people out
Death strikes the hour

Crumbling inwards
None could foretell
Watching in horror
First tower fell

Mighty plume arose
White and gray cloud
Blocking out light
City engulfing shroud

Onwards and upwards
Helping any and all
Half hour passes
Second tower falls

Subsequent devastation
Ruinous loss of all
Seven structures total
Eventually did fall

Weeks of searching
Months of digging
Excavating remains
Bodies and buildings

Puzzle missing pieces
Too high the human cost
Pieces missing puzzles
Searching for those lost

Leaving behind grieving
Children, husbands and wives
Two thousand six hundred twenty seven
Ultimately did not survive

Absent twin towers
Crater in the ground
Haunting reminder
Retribution must be found

Soul stinging disbelief
Grief stricken nation
Galvanized resolve
Unified population

Remember them always
Remember your pain
Let not their deaths
Have been in vain

Three hundred forty three
Brethren of the FDNY
Paid the ultimate price
Duty called, that's why