Cold wind lifts the elm leaves high
Boot heels click on buried time
Breath makes ghost in sodium light
Walking beads of clay and lime
Flashlight sweeps the Common's edge
Bronze plaques catch the fractured beam
Names of dead I pledge to hedge
Against the dark's anonymous dream
These bricks remember every tread
These bricks remember what I said
Hail Mary on the herringbone
Hail Mary walking home alone
Copp's Hill wind cuts through the wool
Of secondhand peacoat thrift store find
No congregation just the pull
Of gravity on inclined mind
These bricks remember every tread
These bricks remember what I said
Hail Mary on the herringbone
Hail Mary walking home alone
Tourist glass reflects the steeple
Old North lantern long since cold
I count the bonds I count the people
In mortar joints the stories told
These bricks remember every tread
These bricks remember what I said
Hail Mary on the herringbone
Hail Mary walking home alone
Radio static Sox game lost
Crackles through the shoulder mic
Frost crystallizes on the post
Where revolutionists would strike
Organ drone from somewhere deep
Beneath the pavement centuries sleep
My voice joins in a cracked descant
No audience no testament
Dawn cracks white on Beacon dome
Relief car pulls to the curb
I've traced the path I've walked it home
Each brick a prayer each step a verb
These bricks remember every tread
These bricks remember what I said
Hail Mary on the herringbone
Hail Mary walking home alone
These bricks remember every tread
These bricks remember what I said
Footsteps fade on clay and lime
Last bead clicked keeping time
