Where Did Everybody Go?

After so many years of battling depression, addiction and death, my first piece here!

When I came back, 

It was dark, but it was day,

the sun was out but it was gray, the cold,

the silence, the feeling of old,

torn trust, faded love, rust in a treasure trove...

Familiar places turned rusty,

all the faithful ones expunged, rusticated.

Was it my fault, for being away too long?

or is it time to blame, for being overly progressive?

Or is it my ignorance because I was late, and "time waits for no man?"

Or maybe, the pace was just too fast, I lost the race

and got around a deserted place?

But you could have waited even for a word,

to tell of my death, or my convalescence,

or maybe, kept hope fluttering... or better yet,

sought me!

Didn't I mean anything to you? or the fondness that absence brings,

does not apply to you?

But then I opened my eyes and realized,

that you had to keep moving, because I had stopped existing to you.

Out of sight out of mind, 

something close to selectively blind,

we become abstract, thinner than our thoughts,

but if we get out of our heads,

maybe we'd find everyone, reaching out for us.

But in the meantime, where did everyone go?