it is as unfortunate as it is true

that at what i thought to be the end

of it all, i had wiped far more

than simply that smile from my face

with it, i had taken the very essence

of what it once meant to me to be, at least

somewhat part of what it means to you

to be, at least, in part, one of the living few

instead, there, dangled something barely

a belt’s notch above what was nothing

and once it finally made sense to me

i couldn’t put any of it back, or even

remember where it had all gone

in the first place that now, becomes last