Polysemous Monosyllabus

In a town, a desertion,
In a house, a persistence,
In a machine, reflexive,

In one religion, God’s third,
In another, guilt’s hunger,
In another, grandmother,

In a dead relationship
A refusal to respond,
In any language a word,

In some languages, the breath,
In the mind, the mind, the mind,
And in life what leaves at death.