clear the shelves
burn the crops
and salt the earth
nothing will grow here
pull down the edifices
leave no record
of who we were
what we shared
of tears and laughter
o… the laughter
drop a clue, or three
perhaps a hastily written note
with the words
family… fixed… future
something to posit on why
we left and – possibly- how to reach us
should we feel the need to answer
but never return
Marie C Lecrivain is a poet, publisher of poeticdiversity: the litzine of Los Angeles, as well as Al-Khemia Poetica, and ordained priestess in the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the ecclesiastical arm of Ordo Templi Orientis. Her work has been published in Nonbinary Review, Orbis, Pirene’s Fountain, and many other journals. She’s the author of several books of poetry and fiction, and editor of Gondal Heights: A Bronte Tribute Anthology (copyright 2019 Sybaritic Press, www.sybpress.com).