Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!

Prodigal Objects


when i lose something,
i am all out in the streets
looking for it.
it doesn't matter if i lost it at home,
or school, or at church.
i think maybe i'll see it
way 'cross town in impossible places.
department stores, restrooms, hospital
lobbies, telephone booths.


earrings, loves, books, buttons,
notebooks, pens.


i'm looking for them all.
say maybe i lost whatever it is
in california, and here i am in chicago,
2000 miles away, looking for it.


or maybe i lost it in africa and one
day i get a certain feeling and i'm
in chicago and i know i lost it say
400 years ago in africa,
but on this particular day, i just know
i'm going to find it in chicago.


it doesn't matter what it is.


no it really doesn't matter what it is,
or where i lost it either.
what matters is the feeling of finding
(there is a law of finding),
what matters is finding on lost days,


and i'm finding that some days
what matters just as much is being found.

Written by Carolyn Marie Rodgers (1940-2010)

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