Like a beached whale the Oculus sits
Giving entry to the caverns beneath,
Sucking in people on the east perimeter of Ground Zero.
A recent addition to the rebuilding of sacred ground,
The whale yawns and gladly swallows the masses
Who now will shop in its belly's mall.

The park on the South side
Was an afterthought to the relatively barren
View of the memorial below.
In a space of massive concrete and steel
Some colorful flowers might sooth the soul.
So walk its well-planned space,
Look at the growing things,
Turn and face the other side of what once was.
Can the pain of Ground Zero be that easily shut out?

What have we grown in this precious space?
Could any dreams have visualized what it's become?
The Pit, became the Pile, became the "empty space"
Now to morph into a jumble of a NYC space
Never envisioned in the architects original plans.

Where smoke and fire rose.
Where DNA was smothered in concrete.
Where footprints were left in the dust...
We cannot turn it into the beauty it was before that day.
So remember the lost and keep an eternal flame
For them burning in our hearts.