This afternoon I took my bicycle for a ride along the Mississippi river levee. This is some of the highest ground in the city, and its flow is responsible for much of the shape and spatial organization of the city itself. I live only two blocks from the river, but I could easily forget it is even there. It is blocked from view by shipping terminals and trains. When I first got to town I had trouble even finding it, though maps said it was right over there. Today was my first ride along the levee that follows River Road (or, I suppose, the river…). It was a pretty ride, but also incongruously ugly. I took this picture sitting at the one picnic table I saw set up on the bike path. The view is of the river, yes, but also a barge and an unidentified metal construct between the trees. Perhaps it is an honest view, showing the river as a place for life–trees, ducklings, and the like–and also a place of commerce and the end of commerce, as trash, the leftovers of consumption, line the banks. Off to the left of this view was this:

Many, many people have been here. I wonder who left the bag, and what is or was in it. I will ride on the levee again soon, and I will keep my eyes open for that bag.