In Tuolumne Meadows,
somewhere along the seven and a half miles
of the Mono Pass trail,
my husband lost a baseball cap
with a Modesto city logo he designed,
and just a day later
somewhere in Camp Curry cabin 504,
I lost a pair of navy blue, lightweight leggings,
probably mixed up
in the slippery navy-blue blanket
placed at the foot of each bed,
and this got me to thinking
about the movie Defending Your Life,
where you die, go to some kind of afterlife,
and are given a box which contains
everything you have lost
during your years on earth.
My box would contain those leggings,
along with the sunglasses I left in Knights Ferry,
a few random keys,
several earrings,
a wallet stolen out of my car,
that pair of turquoise, beaded moccasins
that I left under the motel bed
in New Mexico when I was nine years old,
and countless other things
I have long forgotten.
What would not appear in the box
would be my patience and temper,
directions, appetite, sense of smell,
faith in humanity, seat, and virginity,
all lost
at one time or another.
A retired educator, Nancy Haskett’s work has been seen in more than 40 publications, including Homestead Review, Iodine Press, and The RavensPerch. A collection of her poems, Shadows & Reflections, is now available on Amazon. Nancy enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family in Modesto, CA.
