<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">Desaparecido<br><br>Where I have come from<br>has disappeared.<br>First the wind bent it,<br><br>then burned it down.<br>Now the rain,<br>too late to save it,<br><br>is washing the polluted mud, the remains,<br>down the hillsides<br>into the sea.<br><br>I meant to write them,<br>all my memories of home,<br>down, but they were<br><br>blowing down, burning up, in my brain.<br>I rushed to stick my head<br>in the shower<br><br>and save them,<br>but I washed them away,<br>circling the drain, instead.<br><br>What you see here, what you hear,<br>is all I have left<br>as I fail to write them<br><br>in bed,<br>a bed I may never leave.<br>What’s the point in getting up?<br><br>Everywhere that matters to me<br>is up in smoke.<br>I meet hopeful refugees<br><br>coming to this Promised Land<br>to make new lives, to make new homes.<br>“Are you sure?” I ask them.<br><br>Just last month<br>this place went from Land of Opportunity<br>to Fried Banana Republic.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Doug Lane</div></div></body></html>