The suits now look like they did back then

a little shinier

a little slimmer

on the men rushing around him, past him

through him.

He is reminded that a legacy sometimes

has no physical component

brick and mortar

or fire

or sons.

He likes to go, in times like these

walking past the building they named after his brother

and further out

across the river of history and away from the white stone curtains

that hide what he knew before, and more

what he’s learned since

out to the old General’s land

to the flame still alight

two stones there now.

Light changes so fast now.

No accounting for time,

one instant a nighttime blizzard

the next a sunny cherry blossom flurry.

 

–Danny Grosso