Things Missing Somewhere in This House
Things Missing Somewhere in This House
My birth bertificate…
A box of needed, new bank checks…
Both our wedding rings…
My Waterman fountain pen…
After 4 decades, at least 3 dozen
of Jim’s odd socks & 2 dozen of mine…
2 Roku remotes, 1 somewhere
upstairs & 1 here downstairs…
(Worrying) The hand-written letters I received
from Thornton Wilder & Samuel Beckett…
My nonchalance about tornadoes after last month
when Jim’s sis-in-law’s home
was destroyed in Laurel County…
(Most tragically) Half of our hearts —
after our 2 sons (brothers whom we adopted
when they were aged 2 & 4)…And
so completely adored by us for 14 years,
but who were
then,
one horrid day, driven off
by their birth-mother (in her suddenly
arrived car)…Back to SC where
they were born…And since that day when
they left, they’ve not contacted us…
20 years of our youthful daydreams…
(Woefully) The bottom half of my right leg,
which somehow returned here with me
from the hospital after the surgeon took it
17 months ago, & which with
painful phantom screams,
keeps pleading
to be re-joined…
(& Thankfully) My distance away from Jesus…
8 thoughts on "Things Missing Somewhere in This House"
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Wow!!! Wow!
This is deeply personified and poetic.
I read this aloud to my wife just now and she just said ” wow, that’s a good poem”
Very well shaped and punctuated for the reader. Thank you for sharing this.
Hi Coleman! Great to meet you & to start becoming an active voice in the LEX PO community like i was back in 1982. I’m off to read your poems…………
A compelling poem that completely sneaks up on you. Very well told! Thank you.
So sorry for all your horrific losses told in this poem.
Sally – This title caught my attention. I love the pacing of the poem and how you put importance on things in the beginning only to shift us toward the human connections. Interesting development!
There us so much story compressed here artfully, it’s hard for my comment to give any justice to the poem. I’m glad your voice is here.
So wonderful. Perfect title. Such a sense of loss conveyed so poetically with so much heart.
List poems can be so powerful, this punched me in the gut.