Sunday, August 23, 2026

25 years later

 

You died that morning –

Before the wars,

Before the world changed,

Before technology put the whole world

Inside a glowing screen.

 

Twenty-five years have passed.

 

Your children grew up without you.

Some graduated,

Fell in love, got married

And had children of their own.

 

You never saw their first steps,

their first day of school,

their graduations,

their weddings,

You never held grandchildren

you should have known.

 

Your spouses learned how to live

With an empty chair at the table.

Your parents grew older

carrying grief that never truly left.

 

And while your families changed,

so did the world.

 

We fought wars in your name.

We lost more sons and daughters.

Soldiers came home wounded,

and others never came home.

 

Technology exploded around us.

Phones became lifelines.

Social media changed how we remember.

Artificial intelligence learned to write,

to create

to imitate the human voice.

 

 

 

 

 

The world became faster,

Smaller,

And more connected.

 

But nothing we invented

Could give your families

One more birthday,

One more holiday,

One more hug.

 

You never saw the world

Twenty-five years later

 

You never got your tomorrow.

So today we remember

Not only how you died,

But everything you missed.

 

The marriages,

The grandchildren

The ordinary days

That became extraordinary

Because you weren’t there.

 

Twenty-five years have passed,

 

The world moved forward.

A new tower was built in 2014.

One World Trade Center,

Also called The Freedom Tower

 

Your families grew older

Your children became adults.

 

And you remain

Forever young,

Forever loved,

Forever in that morning.

 

 

8/23/2026 by, Chat GPT