Vanishments

Mysterious disappearance is the official name that means insurance will refuse to pay

for vanished statuettes or diamond rings or the ordinary daily loss of keys and pens

and checkbook and glasses but these vanishments are not really all that mysterious

since matter is mostly empty space and any slight relaxation of the binding force

will disperse the electrons as a cloud and nuclei as dust that settles out of sight

but when yesterday disappeared the vanishment was much more noteworthy

for even if yesterday was not too memorable it was still twenty-four hours

and its disappearance gave a faint plop as air rushed in to fill the vacuum

then a whole year vanished namely 1976 with many events probably

then everything since 1928 leaving only some childhood memories

and the routine of daily life continued as if there were still a past

with eating sleeping laundry shopping rambling conversations

with people who were still here but they sometimes dimmed

and scenes that faded out like mirages or maybe ghosts

of years of long ago or now or years not yet to come

while man and all his works have passed from view

and the landscape once full of streams and trees

is barren and the horizon narrows and now

the sun disappears and then

the moon and stars

and I am alone

on high mesa

naked

afraid