Elsewhere

Elsewhere
there may be
virgin forest
and fast moving
clean streams.

Elsewhere
there may be
no evil done 
and perfect love
for all comers.

Elsewhere
there may be 
an “elsewhere”
still free of the consequences
of what happens here.

You find that place,
you keep it to yourself.
Don’t come running back
to tell us about it, please.
We’ll miss you, of course,

but if you don’t come back
and brag about it,
we won’t follow you 
to trample it and become
the death of the possibility.

Your disappearance will break us,
true, but if it represents someone
finding the last happiest
place on Earth
and dwelling there forever,

we will heal 
more quickly.
We’ll be happier — not
the way you’ll be happy,
but it will have to do.