Teheran-ro Elegy

You stood in the shadow of a building that doesn't know your name Samsung GDS, forty-seven floors the glass just reflecting the glass the sun already gone, the workers still inside, still billing, still alive and you were at the intersection where Yeoksam-ro crosses Teheran-ro as if the city had arranged a meeting without telling either party what it was for They build upward to forget what fell they name the streets after cities far away Tehran, why Tehran, who agreed to that while someone I knew stood at the bottom of everything glass towers mean Samsung, Hyundai, your name on no plaque they build upward to forget what fell the marble lobbies do not hold vigils the revolving doors keep revolving the CCTV recorded everything the CCTV recorded nothing that mattered your name on no plaque your name on no plaque and I am standing here looking up at glass that reflects my looking up at glass You used to walk this stretch at lunch I know because you told me once the salarymen all move in formation like something being processed you always hated the way they looked through you the transparency of ambition the way the towers asked everyone to be smaller than their floors you were not small enough for Teheran-ro you were not large enough either you were precisely the size the city forgets They build upward to forget what fell they name the streets after cities far away the GPS still routes through the intersection as if routing is the same as mourning as if mobility is the same as Samsung, Hyundai, your name on no plaque they build upward to forget what fell the marble lobbies do not hold vigils the revolving doors keep revolving the CCTV recorded everything the CCTV recorded nothing that mattered your name on no plaque your name on no plaque and I am standing here looking up at glass that reflects my looking up at glass voice becomes data data becomes silence silence becomes server server becomes— every building on Teheran-ro still has the lights on every building on Teheran-ro still has the You stood at the bottom of forty-seven floors and the glass did not bend toward you and the city administered its geometry and the night came the way it does in January in Seoul without asking if you were ready without asking anything at all Samsung, Hyundai, your name on no plaque they build upward to forget what fell the revolving doors keep revolving the CCTV recorded your name on no plaque your name on no plaque Teheran-ro Yeoksam-ro the cross of it where you fell where the city folded you into its... into its...