Surely it has changed. See the garden,
once so variously cultivated, razed
but for two old and bending trees encircled
now by protective cement; or the child’s den
cut from some vast illogical passageway;
or minutely, the art deco trimmings along the terrace
shadowed by deep years of dirt; how the trace
of a cable missing into a hole may
stand in for great tangled tracts of concealed
wire; how inside, your picture might sharpen or fade,
in the bathroom, say, where all thought is still cancelled
between the ancient mirror and a brand-new blade.
Vivek Narayanan is a consulting editor for Almost Island and the author of a book of poems, Universal Beach.
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