“The Latest Thing” by W.S. Merwin

In the cities the birds are forgotten
among other things but then one could say
that the cities are made of absences
of what disappeared so they could be there
the flycatchers after the Algonquins
the slaves and the buildings they had made
the woods and the wood thrushes taking their
songs with them when they went and the leaves
taking the tongues they spoke until one could say
that in the continuous sound of the city
one white note plays on to prevent memory
even of the city itself as it was
yesterday in that very place or just
before the light changed at the street corner
it may be that the sound of a city
is the current music of vanishing
naturally forgetting its own song