How to pronounce "downstairs"

You know when to expect them.

And their work lets us do our work.

They are almost a form of reassurance.

The flow that they maintain

keeps us safe from ourselves,

from our own dross, our cast-offs,

and that flow must be maintained always

no matter what.

On the day after September 11 in 2001,

I heard the growl of a sanitation truck on the street,

and I grabbed my infant son and I ran downstairs

and there was a man doing his paper recycling route

like he did every Wednesday.

And I tried to thank him for doing his work

on that day of all days,

but I started to cry.

And he looked at me,

and he just nodded, and he said,

"We're going to be okay.

We're going to be okay."

It was a little while later that I started