Newspoem
30 January 2002
Kate McDowell

Demolition

We don't see what was there.

Rubble, boards, pieces of stone,
fragments jutting up from black earth

these signal us that
something was that
is no more.

And, faced with trash and absence
we ask ourselves
over and over
what was that?
what used to be there?

And we cannot remember.

Newspoetry, the Whole Story