There’s a place
Not too far from here, just past the city
A few miles of bare feet on pavement that turns skin black and reeks of faded fumes
In between skeletal remains of towering skyscrapers that cast lengthy shadows
Through an eerie quiet where there should be incessant, blaring noise

There’s a place

A little ways from here, just beyond the suburbs
Over cracked sidewalks, where childish chalk drawings have long since washed away
Past rows of houses sitting silently, windows dark and shutters drawn
With empty front yards where shrieking, giggling children once played

There’s a place
A bit further, just through the trees
The roots of which have become intertwined over the centuries
As the branches lean in to whisper to one another
Desperate to fill the stillness where birdsong once rang, sweet and clear

There’s a place
Closer now, just one last stretch
Of barren, empty land shrouded not in mist, but in silence
Spread out under a relentlessly beating sun that dangles from a clear blue sky
The world finally looking as it sounds, lifeless

There’s a place
Where weary travelers can sit on the edge and dangle their feet over the chasm
With faces tilted towards the sky, just listening
To the last strains of the orchestra of the cosmos drifting up from the abyss
As the final notes of the symphony of the universe fade out into the heavens.