Erasure
Susan McLean

We think we’ll endlessly recall

the tragedy that happened here,

and when it struck—the day, the year—

will always shatter and appall.

Yet even now, young brides-to-be

choose this to be their wedding day,

tossing a ribbon-bound bouquet

not far from the catastrophe.

Young children, eyes unclouded, sense

no taint of menace in the place.

They have no horrors to efface;

no shiver makes their present tense.

Time sweeps away the dust and flowers

to tidy up and carry on,

until we can’t recall what’s gone

or even that the dust is ours.

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Susan’s notes: “This poem was partly inspired by the tragedy of 9/11, but also by noticing how quickly places made famous by tragic events fade from the memory of the public. I wanted to leave the tragedy unspecified, so that all readers could connect the poem to tragedies that have happened near them. The poem originally was published in Pulsebeat Poetry Journal.”

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Susan McLean is a retired English professor from Southwest Minnesota State University. She has published two poetry collections, The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife, and one book of translations of Latin poems by Martial, Selected Epigrams. Her third poetry book, Daylight Losing Time, is forthcoming from Able Muse Press.

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Erasure Susan McLean

Erasure
Susan McLean