The cars have left

The neighborhood

The streets lie empty

Forgotten

Only the trees remember

And reclaim

What was once their own

In nature

The empty streets

Stand silent

As if a ghost town

Rose up overnight

And the world

Beyond these paved lanes

Vanished

Into its own apocalypse

We listen

To that silence

Translating its meaning

Giving it voice

As we wonder

Just how far

That emptiness has travelled

Where once

A civilization had lived ~ Caroline A. Slee