Lost Bicycles

The New Jersey Transit system carries commuters into Manhattan from little towns like Madison, Short Hills, and Chatham. On the evening of September 11th, on into the next morning, there were bicycles chained up at every train station on the New Jersey system; lonely bicycles that had never spent the night away from home.

These bicycles, like loyal pets, waited in vain for owners who never returned. They waited in the sun, the rain and the growing cold of winter. Scavengers came and picked the flesh from their bones. Wheels, seats and handlebars drifted away like autumn leaves falling from surrounding trees.

In the spring maintenance crews came with torches and hacksaws, removed the sad remains, piled them in the backs of trucks and drove them to the dump.

This entry is part of my journal, published October 17, 2002, in New York.