Place of Death

or Point of Departure

hospital archivists demand

Time of Death

faint echo of Nazi record-keeping

Place occupies a lower status

defaulted in the case

of a hospital exit

(in the manner of quiet blaspheme

given to such defaults)

For X, deprived of bedside vigil

the moment ambushed

in New York Penn Station

place crowded with ugliness

foot of a urinal where shoes had pointed north

involuntary point of departure

the extracted wallet

provided a given name,

another point of departure

sans destination

Gandhi dying in armory

Galileo beneath a cross

on whom the irony was lost

much as ugly places

like this one

obvious

cigarette butt dying out

final frames filled thus

in a costly monument of anti-inspiration

even rats prefer to avoid

tomorrow someone in the station

would be duty-bound to list

1000 places not to be beautified

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban

Beaux-Arts

for Louis Kahn October 2011