UNION STATION

 

 

 

 

two months ago

no one would have tolerated

décor the equivalent of hoarse shouting

 

row after row after row

the American Flag

 

what does it mean? 

 

a woman holding her young child

a thin man gripping his coffee

a homeless man urinating on the sidewalk before me

a businessman pretending life has not changed

 

forever

 

row after row after row

the American Flag

 

what does it mean?

 

the dream always hovered at the tips of our fingers,

not graspable, but still a dream

 

not as one-dimensional as a flag

nor as monochromatic

 

but as potent and bright

 

as nostalgia

as loss

 

Susan Smith Nash

October 18, 2001