Rezoning

“We” ended,

The twin city of us

Has fallen.

Infrastructure that once connected but now contains new plans, different features.

You and I are tangibly familiar but conceptually split,

Your memory welds intimacy with sterile unknowns,

So different from when you were a city I could navigate blindfolded.

I met you like a tourist

Turned local.

Our inside jokes sounded like an accent,

We learned the best parts of each other like hole-in-the-wall joints no one wants to share openly. When it’s public, it’s spoiled, right?

I am part of your public now,

An ex-pat, emigrant, outsider.

I wonder about new construction,

What neighborhoods within you thrive on your best day?

Our ruins can’t be stored in Jpgs,

Technology isn’t be a reliable tour guide to the best parts of us

Those attractions couldn’t be saved on files or liked by other accounts.

“We” is a lost city,

It’s end dated in cancelled streaming services, muted socials,

A new route on my way to work.

From mutual to individual, it’s a new city code.

“We” had to be halved so each of us could be whole.

I admit that you remain a fervent curiosity,

Perhaps more urban myth

that my mind wanders toward on sleepless nights

Not to reconcile,

but because you were my favorite architect,

The best city I got to plan in tandem.

The landmarks we made together and had to destroy,

It’s how I learned the geography of my own heart without you.