MaNHaTTaN Linear

by Adele DeWitt

this big wash
this drowning
of anonymity and indifference
the city simply does not care
if you come or go
stay or leave
live or die in it
the city will go on

the great dark grey slush wash of forgetting
of never-was, doesn’t-matter
nothingness
the waters that grudgingly parted to admit you here
will close again behind you when you go
with indifference

no mark will be left
they are all erased
the incision in cement will fade
crumble
and be pasted over with fresher grey
one day

oblivion is your legacy
you are unneeded by this impersonal darkness
relentless rumble of noise
even if you sprang from these streets
they don’t know you
won’t remember you

it is the nature of the city
nothing personal
nothing personal
at all

—February 2019