TO THE FUNCTION OF ABSENCE

by Sean Karns

“Beams of light faded to black,”
Says the Director of Lights.
He is unsure how to function in the absence
Of light, and how darkness functions without light.

“You are left with a series of entrances
And exits,” says the Director of Doors.
He is unable to open a locked door,
Nor does he know where
Or when or if he will be received, again.

“Everyone has a theory,”
The passerby says to the directors.

And the Director of Cartography
Says, “There are no new terrains to map.”
Now he maps detours and redraws
Maps of old maps, leaving out
What was once seen and touched.

The Director of Questions
And Unsatisfactory Answers
Asks, “Where is the heart when light
Fades? Where is the song
When the heart goes missing?” 
And for the first time in a lifetime,
He has no unsatisfactory answers to provide.

The world paused,
And all the directors mentioned,
And unmentioned, and a passerby,
Who is probably a director of something,
Paused, too, in the silent traces
An absence leaves behind.    

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