Read this piece on the simple randomness of who lived and who died.  

 A person born on September 11, 2001 would now be eighteen.  More than a fifth of America--about 65 million people--are eighteen or younger.

For them, the United States has always been at war. Always.

September Twelfth, 2001

Two caught on film who hurtle
from the eighty-second floor,
choosing between a fireball
and to jump holding hands, 

aren't us. I wake beside you,
stretch, scratch, taste the air,
the incredible joy of coffee
and the morning light.

Alive, we open eyelids
on our pitiful share of time,
we bubbles rising and bursting
in a boiling pot.

 

--X.J. Kennedy, from The Lords of Misrule (Johns Hopkins University Press)