I know a place in Brooklyn Heights right across the water from the south tip of Manhattan. We went there to watch fireworks one year, and I took a book by the Dalai Lama there one Yom Kippur and tried to improve myself for about forty-five minutes until I got bored.

I thought if I went there, maybe I would comprehend what has happened. Maybe my inability was from being inside for a week and seeing it only on TV. 10:00 PM Saturday night, I just felt I had to go, so I got dressed and took the subway from Queens to Jay Street/Borough Hall in Brooklyn, an hour's trip that left me with at least a mile's walk. There are closer stations, but I wanted to walk up Atlantic Avenue because for several blocks, it becomes a Muslim neighborhood.

I don't understand what has happened any better or worse than I did before, but at least my memories won't be of a TV screen. I'm sorry most of us have just television, which is too fast and has edges.

I don't know how long I walked and sat and looked across the water, or how many times I searched for my feelings, and then searched for a hint as to whether their absence was because I was numb or because I'm just too small-brained to understand things so much bigger than me; but it was after 3:00 AM when I got home and smelled incense, which is "I love you" for late-roving husbands.

Thanks to Ivan Van Laningham for hosting all three pieces, and to David Battino for a good audio suggestion.

"Brooklyn Elegy" is ready for viewing at http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith/writing. This is the last one.


Keith

You shall not kill any man whom God has forbidden you to kill, except for a just cause. If a man is slain unjustly, his heir shall be entitled to satisfaction. But let him not carry his vengeance too far, for his victim will in turn be assisted and avenged.
- Koran

http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith