WE WERE NOT HERE

We Were Not Here

We were not here.
No mark remains, no echo rings.
In the vast halls of the universe.
Our atoms scatter, past or future, 
Never now.

The moment just passed does not exist.
The moment to come is unborn.
And this moment?
Already fading,
Dissolving
As we try to name it.

We live between illusions,
Held in place by breath and memory,
Make-believing that presence is real.
But it is not.
We are not.

Particles playing roles,
Stories in dust,
We vanish even as we speak.

And perhaps,
Just perhaps,
That is enough.

To vanish beautifully.
To exist without permanence.
To love, to ache, to reach,
And leave no need
For how or why.

William James Spriggs