Day: October 19, 2021

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 am looking for the photo that would make all the difference in my life. It’s very small and subject to fits of amnesia, turning up in poker hands, grocery carts, under the unturned stone. The photo shows me at the lost and found looking for an earlier photo, the one that would have made all the difference then. My past evades me like a politician. Wielding a fly-swatter, it destroys my collection of cereal boxes, my childhood lived close to the breakfast table. Only that photo can help me locate my fourteen lost children, who look just like me. When I call the Bureau of Missing Persons, they say, “Try the Bureau of Missing Photos.” They have a fine collection. Here’s one of Calvin Coolidge’s seventh wedding. Here’s one of a man going over a cliff on a dogsled. Here’s my Uncle Arthur the night he bought the prize peacock. O photo! End your tour of the world in a hot air balloon. Resign your job at the mirror-testing laboratory. Come home to me, you little fool, before I find I can live without you.