EMPTY

Everything recalls the loss

The last cookie

taken from the plate

A dresser drawer

bared to its newspaper lining

as the last pair of clean socks

is lifted away

Even the garbage can

heaped full and waiting at the curb

will soon be voided and

set down with a hollow clunk

They are all the same

Words erased leave pages blank again

Holes in the ground remain as vacant

and unforgiving

as the eyes of strangers