The Clearing

For a long time, now,
Nobody has found
A good place for them

And their kind, wasn’t
Once someone else’s,
Someone dispossessed.

Something deep in you—
Your origin tales,
The world’s first people,

The world before you,
Unpeopled and new,
How this was given

To you—condemns you
To believe yourselves
This land’s forever

Or discoverers
Of new homes, open,
Unspoiled, all for you.

For a long time now,
That’s meant cleared ghost towns,
Abandoned ruins,

Places you pretend
Were left here for you
But for what haunts you.