Cheryl Snell The 2River View, 7.3 (Spring 2003)
The Lost & Found

Why do you go? She hardly knows you now.

Last time, she twisted my rings until I noticed
hers were gone. Stolen right out from under her.

You want me to see you are still needed.
You want me to promise that none of this
will happen to you.

They make her sit with all the others,
displayed like an open sore. She screams
at passers-by: “Do you know who I am?”

With your mind on fire you tell me this:
What do we do with the thing called Hope?

When you dangle by a thread, I’ll cut it for you.
I’ll do for you what you did for me
on the days you pulled my milk-teeth out,
dragging each one on its pulpy string right through
the first in our lifetime of slamming doors.

CoverPrevious Poem 2River