New Poem
True Story #3: Missing
First a foot, then the whole body
found wedged upside-down behind
a tall bookcase,
a young woman missing in a home
she shared with her family
most of her life.
Eleven days misplaced, the police surmised
she simply fell over trying to adjust
a television plug behind the shelves—
Simply, as if she disappeared
to that land of lost socks and
missing keys
and could be retrieved
simply by believing it so.
Her sister passed her bedroom
without stopping to look
but could not put her finger
on that unfamiliar odor
soaking the house in loss.
It doesn’t matter, at this point,
if they believed it was a kidnapping,
or death or escape.
Only the following remains:
a little thing miscalculated, collapsed,
and gave way. What new fear
will guide their silent house at night—
her absence pinned against a plaster wall.
In the end, it wasn’t enough
to see her every day,
to love her silence and her shaky grace.
They seem convinced of
a quiet so deep
even common sense can’t intrude on it.
Every now and then, I write stories based on news events. Currently, this one is running on CNN.com. Also in the series are True Story and True Story #2: Devotion. Feels goos to write about people outside of my family. Constructive feedback is welcome.
First a foot, then the whole body
found wedged upside-down behind
a tall bookcase,
a young woman missing in a home
she shared with her family
most of her life.
Eleven days misplaced, the police surmised
she simply fell over trying to adjust
a television plug behind the shelves—
Simply, as if she disappeared
to that land of lost socks and
missing keys
and could be retrieved
simply by believing it so.
Her sister passed her bedroom
without stopping to look
but could not put her finger
on that unfamiliar odor
soaking the house in loss.
It doesn’t matter, at this point,
if they believed it was a kidnapping,
or death or escape.
Only the following remains:
a little thing miscalculated, collapsed,
and gave way. What new fear
will guide their silent house at night—
her absence pinned against a plaster wall.
In the end, it wasn’t enough
to see her every day,
to love her silence and her shaky grace.
They seem convinced of
a quiet so deep
even common sense can’t intrude on it.
Every now and then, I write stories based on news events. Currently, this one is running on CNN.com. Also in the series are True Story and True Story #2: Devotion. Feels goos to write about people outside of my family. Constructive feedback is welcome.
Comments
p.s. have you been suffering from unwanted feedback?
You know how much I love these "true stories" of yours. Yet another excellent job. The stanza:
Simply, as if she disappeared
to that land of lost socks and
missing keys
puts a malevolent twist on a typically innocent turn of phrase. Well done.
Happy post-Thanksgiving!
BB, no I have not had any unwanted feedback. But every once in a while I feel the need to clarify the kind of reponses that I'm looking for from readers. Does that make sense?
Erin, we have to talk about the Mary Oliver reading!
I love this line esp:
Only the following remains:
a little thing miscalculated, collapsed,
I like the use of remains, which made me think of the bodily remains.
I especially like "as if she disappeared
to that land of lost socks and
missing keys."