The Unpeopled

The file said she didn't exist. Never born. So why was her dinner still

warm on the table? I have spent twenty years finding people.

But these people do not leave shadows behind them. Birth certificates are blank.

Fingerprints match no one. They live in houses they do not own.

The city feels lighter lately. As if the population is being replaced by ghosts

with physical bodies. I found a new file today. It was at the bottom of

the stack. My own name. According to the state, I died in

nineteen eighty-four. So who is looking back at me? Someone is at