Lost and Found
Confucius surely has a saying apropos
to someone who loses a wedding band
walking or jogging through the park.
A LOST poster shouts the sorry
missing ring news from the pathside
waste container where every passing
walker is compelled to read it.
Oh-oh, someone’s in deep do-do,
I think as I read the pathetic confession.
My first emotional twinge is pity,
as I amble past the poster down the path.
I try not to hone my eyes to a glint of gold
leaping from some grassy clump,
or from amidst the scatter of gravel.
Then a touch of suspicion darkens
the initial compassion and I become
convinced the public poster is a ruse,
a blatant deception to satisfy the partner
and avoid dealing with the truth, having
to explain why and where the ring was
slipped off the finger a few nights ago.
Come on now, how many people lose
their rings out jogging or walking?
I don’t imagine the loser of the ring
will read this poem and it’s just as well.
On the other hand, if the partner does,
why that’s another matter altogether.
~ Glen Sorestad
Glen Sorestad is a well known poet from Saskatoon who has published close to twenty volumes of poetry, the latest being Blood & Bone, Ice & Stone(2005), Halo of Morning(2006) and Language of Horse(2007), an online chapbook on www.coraclepress.com. Sorestad was the first Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan(2000-2004).
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