I am the photo in my life with small fits of amnesia, hands under the upturned stone. Lost. - And found An earlier photo made all the difference. My past evades like a fly. Childhood, in cereal boxes, and my fourteen lost children call. Here the Missing Photos:- One seventh wedding A man going over a cliff Uncle Arthur and the prize peacock The world in a hot air balloon At the mirror. You little fool, I can live - without you.
I amlooking forthe photo that would make all the differencein my life.It's verysmalland subject tofits of amnesia,turning up in pokerhands,grocery carts,under the unturned stone.The photo showsmeat thelost and foundlooking foran earlier photo,the one that would havemade all the differencethen. My pastevades me like a politician. Wieldinga fly-swatter, it destroys my collection ofcereal boxes, my childhoodlived close to the breakfast table. Only that photo can help me locatemy fourteen lost children, wholook just like me. When Icallthe Bureau of Missing Persons, they say, "Trythe Bureau ofMissing Photos."They have a fine collection.Here's oneof Calvin Coolidge'sseventh wedding.Here's one ofa man going over a cliffon a dogsled.Here's myUncle Arthurthe night he boughtthe prize peacock.O photo! End your tour ofthe world in a hot air balloon.Resign your jobat the mirror-testing laboratory. Come home to me,you little fool,before I findI can live without you.
Found style poetry takes existing texts and refashions them, reorders them, and presents them as poems. I derived this one from Maxine Chernoff’s “Lost and Found” prose poem for my Poetics prompt: Lost poems and Found poetry