“Market Street” by Tess McCarthy, 2019

Vacant

is the space you leave behind and in front when you go,
I keep reaching out
(you stay never there)
and this is how things go
when you are dead.
There is no you to interact with;
for we were once in a brain full of synapses in our heads.
We fired off each other like rockets.
There was a push, a pull, a you, a me,
and then vacant nothing
a can tied to a string
a dead crow is found on the street
before your passing — my only warning sign and now
I hear nothing.
—
for Sheila & Eileen