'Names are elegies'

Boston’s India Wharf in the 19th Century. It was torn down in the 1960s.

“Something in the air allures the heartbeat:

Salt wind off the harbor; the smell of spice.

Even the names are elegies: India Wharf

(A lost Cathay); bow window in the slums.’’

-- From “Postcard From Boston” (1948), by William Abrahams (1909-90), who was born and raised in the Boston area. He was a famed editor as well as distinguished writer himself.