Fall and all attendant memories
Crowd the day with unrelated histories
Each year leaves its unresolving fantasies
To hang around each corner
Hang around each street.
Thick with ghosts, the wind whips round in circuitries
Carrying words as strangers exchange pleasantries
Do they intrude upon your private reveries
As they meet you on each corner
Meet you on each street.
Watch for daily braveries
Notice newfound courtesies
Finger sudden legacies
As they clean up every corner
Wash down every street.
Mark the month and all its anniversaries
Put away the draft of all your eulogies
Clear the way for all your private memories
As they meet you on each corner
Meet you on each street.
Make the time for all your possibilities
They live on every street.
Suzanne Vega, "Anniversary," from Beauty & Crime (Blue Note, 2007)
Thinking about my longtime home on this, the first September 11 I've lived elsewhere in 21 years.
Nothing is less present or less acutely recalled, ever.
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