it’s not just buildings and bars,
coffee shops and theaters,
it’s a realm of memories,
of interactions and greetings,
a changing out of rivers
and how they relate to the land
and to the sky. The loss
is of voice and gesture, who you are
in a place, a hum of who you once
were, of what you still cling to.
It’s a walk down a street
you once knew, but that doesn’t
seem to remember you now,
a new pizza parlor, a boarded-up
building, that catch-up period
between friends who haven’t
seen each other in a long time
that begins with a question
about who you are now when
you’re not exactly sure of the answer
in this place anymore. It’s your heart
in your feet, holding steady
to two worlds, one you knew once
before the losing, and one now.
-Liza Wolff-Francis
Saturday's Sirens 