The Forgetting Smoke

It floats around the libraries
And in the nursing homes
It mingles with alone

It's company is despair and sadness
For those who it preys on

The woman who waits everyday
For her husband to come home

The little boy in the park
Sitting on the swing
Hoping, hoping
All the while, that his father will see spring

It meanders on the garbage-filled empty streets

Its language is Latin
It was from the fires of Alexandria
When the library fell
Its prey was Carthage
The fields sown with salt
Never to grow again

It crumbles the pyramids of Egypt
Making the Sphinx weep

It gives the cemeteries a peace
Broken only by the wailing woman's sobs

It is sadness without hope
It is the dust that we will bite

Maybe, I too will be covered