“Why are you still here?”

The train still reverberates across rusty rails,
On schedule but abandoned, resounding far throughout the city,
Just as the streets are empty and surveilled,
The people sick with fear and fear of sickness.

“Why are you still here?”

There is nowhere to run in a pandemic,
No space safe for a burden as I,
One who protected themselves by escaping,
Vacancy in the cityscape no longer offering sanctuary.

“Why are you still here?”

I don’t have a home to return to,
I don’t have a family that will love me,
Though I am not the first nor the last to be lost,
Transient strays, surpassing the maladies of blood, build chosen families.