streets in poetry

streets named after people long
forgotten along with their deeds
the only remaining memory being
the city streets themselves

maybe property is theft
maybe memory’s a stranger
but if one thing’s for sure
it’s that history is a rental
we’ll recede into legend
before our bodies are cold
we might remember the wheres but
we’ll forget the whys and the whos
before we’re even really old

so hats off to Mister Elm
three cheers for Missus Oak
whoever they were
whoever we were