Oubliette

A type of dungeon consisting of a hole in the floor wherein you'd be dropped into and left to be forgotten

"Oubliette"

 

There are these places

I have been to which have

Left such grand impressions that

Linger still in my memory

Long after I have left them,

Mapped onto my psyche like

Olympus Mons or Monte Carlo -

The concentration camp,

The monstrous shell of Buchenwald

Where I felt the weight of

Ghostly silences and family ties -

The crumbling span of wall that

Used to separate Berlin,

Once a bastion firm and tall,

The herald of oppression,

An artist's graffitti gallery now -

There was the Pine Ridge Reservation,

That tract of South Dakotan plains

Where the traditions of the past

Met the treachery of the future,

The sounds of tears and bullets

Still ricocheting in the wind -

The hallowed halls of Canterbury

Where my footfalls echoed

Back across the centuries.

All of these old properties still

Carry traces in flesh and blood

That are felt on reminiscing

But not a one affects me more,

Does cause the clenching of

My nerves and stomach as when

I drive down Irvine Place and

Pass our old apartment,

That second story where you broke

Both our friendship and my heart.