lost

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

after one look

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say I want to see the manager.

~ William S. Burroughs

[Chicago Avenue west of Damen Avenue; demolished]

swim to me, swim to me

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you.
Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you here when I was full sail?
Hear me sing: Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you.
Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you

"Song The Siren," This Mortal Coil

[Carroll Street west of Damen Avenue]

they could not lose their way

The path was narrow and wound here and there between the trees, but they could not lose their way, because thick vines and creepers shut them in on both sides. They had walked a long time when, suddenly turning a curve of the pathway, they came upon a lake of black water, so big and so deep that they were forced to stop.

"Little Wizard Stories of Oz," L. Frank Baum

[Winchester Street at Chicago Avenue]

ordinary eternal machinery

Hear is not the right word. I became a telephone. Edith was the electrical conversation that went through me.
—Well, what was it, what was it?
—Machinery.
—Machinery?
—Ordinary eternal machinery.
—And?
—Ordinary eternal machinery.
—Is that all you are going to say?
—Ordinary eternal machinery like the grinding of the stars.
—That’s better.
—That was a distortion of the truth which, I see, suits you very well. I distorted the truth to make it easier for you. The truth is: ordinary eternal machinery.

"Beautiful Losers," Leonard Cohen

[Carroll Street west of Damen Avenue]

you want to travel blind

And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

"Suzanne," Leonard Cohen

[Chicago Avenue east of Damen Avenue]

everything terrible

Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

[Damen Avenue above Augusta Avenue]

timeless raindrops

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

"A River Runs Through It," Norman Maclean

[Chicago River near Wacker Drive]

color of hard crimson

You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.

That day in Moscow, it will all come true,
when, for the last time, I take my leave,
And hasten to the heights that I have longed for,
Leaving my shadow still to be with you.

"You Will Hear Thunder," Anna Akhmatova

known knowns

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.

~ Donald Rumsfeld