Ebb
I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide,
A little tepid pool,
Drying inward from the edge.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
It is hard to ignore that this beautiful poetry is part of the landscape of a typical college bathroom. Yet, although this might seem a contradictory juxtaposition, it actually adds meaning to this unintentional monument.
A bathroom is a functional site. It is a place of “habitual memory” where specific socially accepted behavior is expected. In this way the site can be viewed as a place of “ritual”. The poetry has usurped this functional site to embed itself into the everyday life of those who visit there. When asked about the poetry a girl replied, “I remember liking it. I don’t remember it”. The fact of the poetry’s existence had become an expected part of this everyday ritual, making it part of the habitual memory, reminding the viewer that others had also been sharing this “ritual” at the site. While reading the words you realize how many other eyes have read them and how many hands have written them.
The ingraining of these words into a person’s subconscious memory is what creates a chasm when the words suddenly disappear.
Just like love, so to, does a toilet ebb and flow...
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