I Wander Alone

I wander alone

tall buildings surround

drip drop drip drop drip

pipe somewhere has burst

moss and vine abound

cracks web the old street

dusk is falling now

anxiety claws

primal need to hide

no home to return to

no family to fret

no strangers to burden

free of all consequence

except for cloying regret

and a blue nostalgia

like rain on broken glass

inside an office building

enter through shattered glass door

crunches underfoot loudly

office plants grow on the walls

ceiling stained with rainwater

chairs and tables still arranged

I’m presenceless, like a ghost,

traversing frozen moments

sometimes I cry in the soft night

the tears for me and me alone

many other nights I do not

but still I carry it with me

knowledge that I have all the world

but nobody to share it with

and too few hands to maintain it

my only purpose to witness

what little I can of what’s left

I find an in-tact kitchen in back

I close the door and lock it tightly

but for my paranoia only

for only stray dogs are a worry

though sometimes I wish I was hunted

to at least give urgency to my

vague, guilty, mis-begotten journey

overhead, I hear a groan, then a snap

Tumbling, Shaking, Roar of a Collapse

years of patient neglect now take their toll

I quickly scurry out of the kitchen

down the hall, down the stairs, I fly on fear

chairs rattle, wall ornaments fall and break

The illusion of stillness is Shattered

Destruction comes, this is no peaceful Death

I sprint out the shattered door onto the street

I look up to witness the end of the place

I see that only the top-left has collapsed

all of my forgotten things are still inside

I cannot go back inside it and risk death

nothing precious was inside my bags or clothes

I already left those in special places

I don’t have food or water, but I will find more

I know this because it’s truth is irrelevant

when I die does not matter, there is nobody

no one will miss me or require me or my help

the chirping crickets will not write ballads of me

the owls will not discuss my merits and trials

the decaying concrete will not remember me

any trace of me will be gone in centuries

I am unimportant, for I wander alone