Dark Register

--Cynthia Cruz

If you leave,

he said,

keep who you are.

Don’t let the world

and its desires

ruin you.

But after the dream

comes the habit.

And no way to fix it.

What is gone

cannot be put back.

Damage

from the inside.

What I have become

is warmed over

with that now

ancient dream.

What I was

is vanished.

I came back home

but I came back

gone.