KILROY WAS HERE

“Every time something comes into contact with another thing it either takes, or leaves, something of itself.”  —Locard’s Basic Forensic Theory

Like that famous Life Magazine photo

the astronaut’s footprint on the moon

I left my name and initials carved into 

school deskstops and tree trunks 

I was here 

I left a paper trail of Polaroids 

tax forms and dental records 

blazed with the connect-the-dots 

breadcrumbs of trace evidence: 

Fibers and fingernails 

and follicles 

blood and sweat 

and tears stains 

So, you cosmic CSI guys, go ahead 

and lift my prints from all those 

steering wheels and door knobs,  

extract my DNA from licked envelopes 

And process the data— 

let the results proclaim 

my presence here 

in the dust: 

I too was here