Title: Missing

Author: Scribe

Status: Finished

Fandom: Original poetry

Disclaimer: This is an original work, copyrighted by the author

Archive: At list archives and the WWOMB only, unless given express permission by author.

Notes: Written while I was in a rehab center, recuperating from a broken hip. I wasn't feeling too
chipper.

Dedication: For Elizabeth Smart, all the other children who have gone missing, and their families.
May every story have a happy ending.

Missing
by Scribe

It's the eyes that haunt you,
(large and dark, soft and light),
in newspapers, magazines, and on fliers
tacked to telephone poles,
sometimes solemn, sometimes gay.
Braces, or perhaps one or two
pristine baby teeth, proudly displayed.
Scant infant curls, glossy braids, cowlicks...
Blonde, brown, ebony, copper.
Different, yet the same, and always the words,
'Missing, last seen...'
You look at the picture,
imagining some man or woman
with tear streaked cheeks
numbly reciting age, height, weight, hair, eyes,
as the friends and family marshall all reserves,
set up search parties, man phone lines, comb
neighborhoods.
The tragic pas-de-deux emerges as a circle dance
with the missing one, yet unfound,
at its center,
while everywhere the people see haunting eyes
set in a television screen
or grubby flier,
and hold their children close.