There is not a person in sight

not a sound

not a whimper

The city is awake

its dry breaths heard from the alleyways

that anticipate loss but never

change

We speak of stories about 

those who have chosen to come back 

home 

with the door locked 

upon their arrival 

the same commotion is heard 

from neighboring streets

but now 

it echoes a different tune 

our stories are 

distant from the familiar

the unfamiliar

forced to become our new home

This land is not mine

not yours

not anybody else’s

When we leave it behind

it will not be a monumental performance

not an act of despair

not an interpretive dance of historical relief

with the stage infinitely expanding

and the audience

silent

There will be no sense of

victory

or defeat

This land is not mine

not yours

and its intricate

webbed

machinery will not connect us back 

to where we never belonged

we do not wish to find our way back home

so we cut the wires loose

and circle aimlessly in orbitals

the looming

interstellar space around us

and the rattling Earth beneath

The elusive sounds

from passing comets

resonate

with the industrial noise back home

This land is not mine

not yours

not anybody else’s

it will continue to heave restlessly

long after we’re gone

our voices

our misery and triumphs

will just be a flicker of dust

bursting in the air

without an echo

without a song

without a mirroring reflection

of what we once were

of what we were bound to become

When we leave

let there be no memorial

we do not want a cenotaph

barely remembered

This land is not mine

not yours

not anybody else’s

and yet it will continue to feel like it is

the cosmos shaped by our horizons

the towering skyscrapers reaching towards a sun

that speaks the same language as us 

even when we don’t feel at home

This land is not mine

not yours

but when we leave

who will write the aching history of today?

of tomorrow?

who will take note of  

of its indifference and its last breaths? 

This land is not mine

not yours

not anybody else’s

it is only to be inhabited

for a brief

                                                 moment

                                                                             in space

                                              flickering

                                                                         like a shivering candle

                                              shifting

                                                                                      bursting

                  missing                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                 extinguished

                                                        forgotten                 and                                           

gone