the fossil record

<<26>>

Duende

Senser of imminent vacancies,
of impending departures, are you

in the abandoned neighborhood
as I walk through it alone,

after midnight, thinking these words?
Are you in the blanked-out,

impenetrable darknesses lining
the unused railroad tracks, image

of a demon craving souls for sale,
or is that merely innocuous animation

excerpted from the dream of a child?
Are you in the clouds obscuring the stars,

are you drawn to the spaces between
these stanzas, do you wonder what’s

behind each closed door and inside
each room, or do you already know?

Jason Roush