Nels Hanson’s most recent poem to appear here was “Lights” (December 2017)

Tour
By Nels Hanson

Don’t try to pluck out
ten thousand thorns

to staunch the wounds.
Anyway, it’s far too

late. Let the cuts bleed
dry, enter the vacant

heart’s new door with
white-gowned police

to discover who lived
in cramped adjoining

rooms. No one, someone,
alone, with another? If

you wish scratch your
name on a pale wall

to say you were there,
like ancient graffiti

on pillars of temples
long deserted, empty

except for the tourists
and their eager guides

amazed by the vaulted
ceilings of what was

once the house where
the soul lived a while.