Lost

Lost in the Shuffle

By Big Frank Dickinson

"Are you returning 'Gardens of the Northwest';
Would you like to renew it?"
Having no idea what happened
I stall by renewing: it could show up.

Where did that book go?
Probably lying in a drawer
In a motel in Dallas, or Berlin,
Right next to The Book of Mormon.

But what about those baseball cards?
Did my mother throw them away,
Or is the whole box of them

On e-bay adding to her 401-K?

And that picture is somewhere,
In a box, in an attic, or maybe the garage.
It’s probably faded now to the point
Where she's melted into the wallpaper.

And the actual face – where is she now?
As lost as the love that was professed.
The letter gone too, chastising

Years later, for my having lost devotion.

But that faith, it's around here somewhere.
Waiting in abeyance, as it were.
Not lost just yet, for only after
Acquisition can loss occur.