St. Louis

Two men/Franzen and/Kuntsler spoke/of your departure

(Map of St. Louis, Missouri c. 1900. Photo courtesy of Britannica.com)

Note: Franzen is Jonathan F. (The Twenty-Seventh City) and Kuntsler is James Howard (The Geography of Nowhere).

St. Louis

Two men
Franzen and
Kuntsler spoke
of your departure

Like Youngstown 
and Flint you seem 
to be evaporating

Life goes on 
at the World's 
Fair and a few
years ago Ferguson

Was a name on the television 
but sprawl -regardless of 
its value- was a fatal innovation
in a metropolis that couldn't 

Annex its county. 
St. Louis, you will 
never grow beyond
61 square miles 
of land 

Because unlike Paris
(so small at a mere 40)
you are not the center
of a civilization 

And as much as people 
might admire WashU
Harvard remains in Boston.

-Jeremy Nathan Marks