Contributor: Richard Schnap

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In the apartment above me
I hear workmen erasing
The signs of its previous tenant

Ripping up the carpet
Where he paced on nights
When he woke from uneasy dreams

Replacing the faucets
Of the kitchen in which he
Made meals he would eat alone

Painting the plaster
Stained with the outlines
Of portraits of those he loved

And soon it will seem
Like he never had lived there
As it waits for the next to come

To make it their own
For a temporary time
As the seasons pass swiftly by


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Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.