The Missing Person
He has come to report himself
A missing person.
The authorities
Hand him the forms.
He knows how they have waited
With the learned patience of barbers
In small shops, idle,
Stropping their razors.
But now that these spaces in his life
Stare up at him blankly,
Waiting to be filled in,
He does not now how to begin.
Afraid that he might not answer
To his description of himself,
He asks for a mirror.
They reassure him
That he can be nowhere
But wherever he finds himself
From moment to moment
Which, for the moment, is here.
And he might like to believe them.
But in the mirror
He sees what is missing.
It is himself
He sees there emerging
Slowly, as from the dark
Of a furnished room
Only by darkness,
One who receives no mail
And is known to the landlady only
For keeping himself to himself,
and for whom it will be years yet
Before he can trust to the light
This last disguise, himself.
A Reason Why
Sometimes I wonder why I am here.
On a world so hostile and full of things to fear.
Where people fight, and more die.
Where people cheat, steal, and lie.
Where "good help is hard to find".
And people are rarely ever kind.
But right when I am stuck, not knowing what to do,
I stop thinking about everything but me and you.
And the world is suddenly a better place to be.
With nothing else, just you and me.
Holding each other in a tight embrace,
Or dancing around with the greatest of grace.
But then again that’s all I feel,
When I am holding you for real.
Like no one else is even there,
Just you and me in a world so bare.
I am never alone,
And never cold,
As long as you are with me,
For me to hold.
What attracted you to this poem?
They both made me think and reflect on my life.
What figurative/sound devices (if any) did you find in the poem?
What do you believe the meaning of the poem to be?
