Something Lost, Something Trivial

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broom

 

Something Lost, Something Trivial

Another word, another bewildered
moment in transition: the phrase
barely emerges from your mouth
before crumbling back into a half-opened
drawer in the loneliest room of a house
that died seventeen years ago.

I nod as if in understanding, and stoop
to pick up a crushed drinking straw,
the kind with the accordion elbow
that facilitates adjustment.

From a rooftop across the street,
a mockingbird warbles his
early morning medley of unrelated
songs, and you say left oblique,
followed by matches, then
collapse on a bench,
winded. I sit next to you

and we both enjoy the warmth
and birdsong, though I know
this only through the uplifted
corner of your mouth, which
these days is how you indicate
either deep pleasure or

fear. I have to leave soon,
I say, and you grab my wrist
and stare into my eyes.
Broom, you reply. And more
emphatically, Broom!

Though I cannot follow you
directly, knowing both path
and destination, I pick my way
carefully through the years
stacked high like cardboard
banker’s boxes stuffed with
papers and receipts no one
will ever see. I know, I say.
I love you, too. Broom.

* * *

“Something Lost, Something Trivial” was published in January 2016 in the first issue of MockingHeart Review. Many thanks to editor Clare L. Martin, for her many kindnesses.

31 thoughts on “Something Lost, Something Trivial”

  8. So gentle, Bob; so carefully observed and translated. I feel the possibility of this, or a paler facsimile, with my aging parents. Helpless. And yet: the warmth and the birdsong.

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  9. My haikui inspired by the poem, many thanks for sharing – Mick

    ~~~~~~LOST~~~~~~
    something lost maybe
    something trivial check
    heart open come see

    ~~~~~FOUND~~~~~
    birds melodies songs
    free inspiration life bonds
    lost do tag along

    Like

    Reply ↓

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