Nothing Beside Remains

We know, intellectually at least, that everything burns,
That Empires believed to be interminable and impervious
Will reduce to ash, to shattered visages and colossal wrecks
Where nothing beside remains.

But to watch Notre Dame topple amid the flames today,

A baby of less than a millennia in the face of ancient time,

To experience the fall and feel the weight of my own short life

Is another thing altogether, and makes knowing immaterial at last.