Know your limits

I'm the size of an apartment, no bigger -
I'll never make it to the house on the hill
with the long lawns, the large rooms,
and a kitchen you can feed a family in,

no, I will be here until
the seas rise up and lap at the steps,
until they invade the basements
with their neptunian depths

and all the things that people stored -
their suitcases of clothes unworn
their exercise bikes and word processors
from 1992 - when they are all floating around
in the dark, I will still be here

when the power goes out,
the homeless people are living in the stairwells
because "we're all homeless now",
I'll look out from my balcony
at the drowning towns 
along the coast

and think about the family
at the top of the hill -
I promised I would join them there
but I know I never will.

I'm the size of an apartment,
             no bigger.