i lost my marbles
On December 16, 2021, my FB friend and avid rider, Hai Vu, claimed in the Ottawa Motorcycle Riders group that he was “starting to lose [his] marbles;” thus:
I commented that it appeared to me his marbles had decamped long ago. A spirited exchange ensued. I decided I should send him a photograph of my marbles (pictured above), which I kept in a jar on a shelf in my living room. Handy.
By the way, you may have already guessed that the thing Hai “Just had to” do was go for a ride, which, if you are an OMR group member you may view at this link. You will notice he is dressed in suitably festive gear for the occasion, Christmas being only nine days away at the time. Presumably, he found some of his lost marbles in the short jaunt around the block; perhaps under a snow bank. He didn’t report on that part.
Meanwhile, in a stunningly ironic twist, I went to the shelf to discover that my own marbles were…AWOL! I must have moved them. To where I knew not. I spent the better part of an hour searching for that effing jar of marbles. It was all to no avail. The marbles and their jar seemed to have vanished into thin air. And obviously I couldn’t send photographic proof of being in possession of all my marbles when clearly I wasn’t. Sigh.
I gave up the hunt when the hide-and-seek irony roused the Poetry Pixies.
i lost my marbles (part 1)
by susan
© 2022
Listen here:
Read here:
i lost my marbles (part 1)
i had a jar of marbles
i kept them on a shelf
then i had to move them
store them somewhere else
i put them in a real safe spot
a place I would remember
even if it were to be
well past next december
funny thing about shifting stuff
is at the time it seems
you won’t forget the place it’s put
at least not in your dreams
then you try to find it
and oops, it can’t be found
not high not low, not anywhere
as you turn round and round
that’s what happened with that jar
the one in the first line
filled with marbles to the top
which all used to be mine
actually, they all still are
they’re just a little missing
which makes it hard to get things straight
or practice reminiscing
but they’ll turn up, i know they will
they won’t be gone for long
this spring or fall they’ll reappear
as if there’s nothing wrong
P.S. The marbles surfaced eventually — in the middle of March 2022. More on that later…
© 2022 Susan Macaulay. I invite you to share my poetry and posts widely, but please do not reprint, reblog or copy and paste them in their entirety without my permission. Thank you.
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