Algiers 'Remains'

Sown grains,
Carelessly placed,
Now vines upon the house's frame,

The sun invades,
Through a cracked window pane,
The burnt floor content to sunbathe,

Ghosts now,
Spectral remains,
Inscribing names on the cenotaph,

Undisturbed and,
Unaware chests,
Gasp for breath in the attic,

Resolute doors,
And broken frames,
Grasp and tame unwieldy contents,

And down, down, down,
By the side of the road,
Lays a note addressed to God in phlegmatic prose,

In the margins,
Repeats the phrase,
“I don’t remember.”

r. mahan