For those who worked at Ground Zero

The Flame Inside Our Hearts

09/10/19

Flame consumes

Flame destroys

Flame burns the flesh.

 

You ran

Into the epicenter

Into the vortex of fire

Of hell on earth.

 

Fighting fire with the fire of your love

You ran towards the flame

Even though it might consume you.

You saved the innocent

As even you were not saved.

 

Flame explodes

Flame spreads

Flame smolders.

 

You worked the Pile

Inhaled the smoke

That rose like spirits into the sky

Seeking any that fire had not consumed.

 

Like fingers across time

The flame that once smoldered

Reaches out and engulfs you

Snuffing out your life.

 

Flame warms

Flame lights the way

A metaphor for love.

We remember you fallen by fire.

We remember you consumed by smoke.

We fight for you the living

Because of the flame of love burning in our hearts.

The Name Game

Long before Alexi, Siri, and Cortana, us geeks had a habit of naming our non-sentient devices. Individual mainframe computers connected together had to identify themselves to us humans, so system managers gave them names. In the early years it was cutesy, pop culture ones like Spock, Kirk, Dr. Who. When PCs hit the scene, we, of course, christened them too. I had Attila, a PC who ever day would assault me with error messages in an attempt to take over the digital galaxy. Then there was Excalibur, who helped me cut thought the tedium of grammar and spell checking. Some of my PCs names were a derivative of their brand names: La Nova was a Lenovo, Delilah is a Dell Latitude!

Once the habit of naming devices became part of my life, I felt compelled to name all non-computer ones as well. Jedra is my Jetta VW wagon, before her was Jeffrey, a Ford Focus named after the salesman who sold her to me. Of course my cell phone had to have name too: Turtle, because it wasn’t a fast Smart phone!

No I don’t name refrigerators or stoves, or TVs. Though I did name my digital camera “Casi” which is the brand name emblazoned on its cover. But I draw the line on watches and clocks. However, items I touch, that have some sort of “operating system” that gives it a form of intelligence and can carry out my commands, those get named.

Oh goodness, I just read about a refrigerator you can talk to and which will remind you when you run low on milk or lettuce. Now what should I name it? Maybe I’d call it “Iceberg”.