Footprints

When you walk,
does the earth tremble and break away—
It’s tectonic plates forming voluptuous mountains
in the hearts of others?
Do you leave footprints in the sand,
or kick up dust in alleyways—
in places no one takes the time to look?
If I pressed your footprints back into unrecognizable earth,
what would happen?

Would you tremble and shake?
Would your mind implode upon itself
like an interruption of thought?
Would the dust you kicked up
be lost to the crooks and crannies of time?

Maybe, instead,
you’ll simply cease to exist.
Washed away upon the shore
like nothing more
than footprints in the sand.