Lower Hudson River

Words: Sherman Dorn, 2001
Music: "Cold Missouri Waters" (James Keelaghan)
Tuesday morning, and the station
is discharging the passengers into the streets above.
A nerve center of the island
and a landmark in the skyline of the city that he loves.
Peter Ganci, for 40 years a fireman.
When the call comes, his folks will do all that they can.
For their fire chief, they all follow his command,
working side by side along the lower Hudson River.

An explosion and the walls shake,
and then glass and steel and fuel rain down to the streets below.
There is screaming high above them
and their training then takes over, for they know just where to go.
Get the people down to safety on the street.
Rescue the injured, encourage everyone you greet.
Survey the damage, this conflagration you'll defeat
working side by side above the lower Hudson River.

It was too hot, the towers burning
and the engineers designed them for ten thousand years to stand.
So they stay low, wait the fire out,
and they check each floor for workers and they take them by the hand.
But the maelstrom is so hot it melts the steel
And the top floors do not hear of their appeal
And they know now that their fate is surely sealed
working side by side above the lower Hudson River.

Wednesday morning, New York sunshine
with a drift of dust and smoke obscuring everything but grief.
Volunteers now search the rubble,
hoping miracles will happen, but the signs of hope are brief.
The fire fighters cry while looking for their peers.
But time moves forward, no way to get them safe and clear.
The rescue workers will go where even angels fear,
working side by side along the lower Hudson River,
working to save others though their own lives are so dear.
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