Night after night he walks the Paris he knew.
Searches out each place. Hotel Duc de Bourgoin
on Ile Saint Louis, the primitive room
with a stone floor on the Rue de la Boucherie across
from the cathedral, and the old building
where his mansard was on a hill above the canal.
All taken down or undiscoverable.
Like Trastevere or København. Like her apartment
in San Francisco on Waller, and their place
on Oak. The ruined cities of America. The grand
theaters built for vaudeville, tawdry and soiled
when he knew them in Baltimore and Chicago,