Feb
4th
Sat
4th
… No one could dispute how beautiful Brooklyn was less than one year later, the summer after the towers fell. It was as if the ashes from the tower had fertilized our neighborhood. The local population of stoop-sitters, myself included, were the recipients of an unexpected bounty. Gardens flourished. Boutiques and restaurants bloomed. Funereal ash clogged our air-conditioner filters, which we cleaned in the bathtub. We washed the last traces of ash down the drain, and then we scrubbed the drain and the inside of the tub with disinfectant, and then we were done.
—
David Samuels, “Crossing Over,” The American Scholar 73.4 (Autumn 2004).
I’ve found my epigraph.
