\nEach gently asks, \u201cRemember me?\u201d
\nThey gather round and tell their stories of life and love:
\nJohn, who loved soccer and coached his kids,
\nSuzanne, who loved her little sister with Downs,
\nMario, who considered fine wine with a good meal and the company of Friends a sacrament,
\n Max*<\/a>, who loved tinkering with old Mustangs and playing the trombone.<\/p>\n
Thousands more come, they who loved family and friends, cold lemonade On a hot summer\u2019s day, the \u201cgood tired\u201d coming at the end of a hard Day\u2019s work, the view of a sultry sun setting from a front porch swing.
\nThey crowd around, pleading, \u201cRemember\u2026remember us!\u201d<\/p>\n
They are angry now, and together they cry \u201cPatriot!\u201d
\nAnd from the main streets others come, from backwoods, bayous and the Bronx they answer the call, a nation\u2019s sons and daughters coming to their Mother\u2019s aid,
\nFledglings forsaking spring for a season of sacrifice.
\nAround a flag and a cross-shaped piece of steel they make their stand,
\nLearning the old, hard truth; \u201cWhere freedom is found, blood has been Shed.\u201d<\/p>\n
I push on now, as a drudge who watches epic battles raging \u2018round
\nAnd wonders what he would do should the fight come to his front door Tomorrow.
\nMy companions whisper words of comfort in my ear as they fade away:
\n\u201cBrother, to remember is to fight,
\nTo remember is to raise us from the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
—————————–<\/p>\n
More stories of Max can be found here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"max-hammond.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/max-hammond.jpg\" "\\"max-hammond.jpg\\"")
I composed this poem on the morning of the first anniversary of 9\/11. Max Hammond<\/a>*was a Huntsville native and a 1982 graduate of Grissom High School<\/a> where my oldest son currently attends. He was a National Merit Scholar, an accomplished trombonist and earned a PhD in physics from UCLA. He was on a business trip to California aboard United Airlines Flight 175<\/a>, the second plane hijacked and subsequently flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He was 37-years-old.<\/p>\n