Gone

Just four letters.
Gone.
Gone carries,
in some ways,
far more finality,
far more loss,
upon its wings
than does that five-lettered beast,
Death.
Death is witnessed.
Gone is nowhere to be found.
Gone carries worlds away,
Gone while you're not watching.

***

"I'm not from 'round here" he said, looking down at his hands, the lines and scars telling a story only he knew. "I'm from down there," pointing southward, still looking at his hands "and now it would seem that I'm not from there anymore either." He folded his hands in his lap, took a long deep breath, looked up. He looked me straight in the eye "Be careful, walk far enough and you switch worlds. When you try to go back, well," he took another pause, another long deep breath "well, you find things aren't the same. That world you walked away from, you walked too far son. All  gone."