June 1, 2009: Cyprus: “Sitting on a Rooftop in Larnaca”

Published in the A Year in Revolt: March 15, 2009-March 15, 2010, Journal

All the lights have gone out.
Nobody knows why and
no one knows how.

Wet with rain the wind
brushes raspy brown leaves
across the clay.

What’s left of sunlight
is the silver of the glassy air
and the pewter of the stones.

What to keep and what to
leave behind is all I need to know—
what lives and continues living.

Without that, everything ends up
a disappointment. So why don’t I
just go home, halfway across the globe?