I was first there

in the fading time after dusk
and the walls hid nothing more
than vague shapes in the dark
and returning the next day
full, bright sun
revealed hunched,
broken,
toppled stones
all marks erased by time
and so the residents below,
forgotten but for
only the suggestion of their presence
beneath the grass and flowers.
Some day
when I can no longer come back,
every trace will be gone.