Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/poet-nancy-mercado-reflects-on-what-she-lost-in-going-to-work-after-9-11 Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript After the attacks of September 11th, New Yorker and poet, Nany Mercado, felt compelled to write about what she lost when the World Trade Center Towers came down. Mercado reads her poem, "Going to Work." It was included in "Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets." Read the Full Transcript RAY SUAREZ: I'm a New Yorker. As a teenager, I watched the Twin Towers being built. In the tough economic times of the late '70s, I strolled the World Trade Center food court and the underground shopping mall on my way to sign for an unemployment check.I've covered news conferences in Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower. It was hard to believe such enormous, solid, seemingly permanent buildings, could collapse. To this day, I feel their absence whenever I approach the city from Brooklyn or New Jersey.Poet Nancy Mercado, a fellow New Yorker, felt compelled to write about what she lost when the towers came down. NANCY MERCADO, poet: "Going to work."On their daily tripsCommuters shed tears nowUse American flagsLike veiled womenTo hide their sorrowsRush to buy throwaway camerasTo capture your twin ghostsFrantically I tooPurchase your memoryOn postcards & coffee mugsIn New York City souvenir shopsAfraid I'll forget your facadeForget my hallowed SundayMorning PATH Train ridesMy subway travels throughThe center of your bellyDay after dayAfraid I'll forget your powersTo transform helicoptersInto ladybugs gliding in the airTo turn New York CityInto a breathing mapTo display the curvatureOf our world