the people all gone

secondhand sand on the streets, and the traffic
is non-existent in this ghost wisp of a town.
the cantina, the two-for-one movie theater,
all the bright and forgotten houses; we stand
tall in the silence of a tumbleweed morning,
nothing between us but the quiet sky, the sun
rising despite the desperation of boarded
-up windows and doors left wide open.
everyone has gone, fled (unlike the rats)
and left us here to contemplate the emptiness,
how businesses cease to function without
customers, houses fail to be homes with no
families living there. another forgotten city,
the street lights long burned out, turned off;
it is quiet, and we remember what once was.