For Everything You’ve Missed

A lamentation of how things used to be(Poem)

Photo by cottonbro studio

“For everything you have missed,
you have gained something else,
and for everything. you gain, you lose something else.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I miss the curly rainbows of static
on basic TV;
Good Times like Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons.

Spilling over the couch where we spoon —
fried scent of tater skins with gobs of ketchup
onions linger in the room.

I miss the way my hand would fist the
soft paperbacks before Tech snatched them.
I read under an orange light instead
of blue;

I read until the wet of my tongue grew sticky
from tasting worlds
Sticky with the Dawn’s yawn.

Now, I hold books in my hand on
one blue mirror, a powder blue light,
a minicomputer with diaries
and shopping lists

and grandma’s Obituary saved on Bing.

Thank you for reading!

This poem was inspired by a prompt in Diane Lockward’s book, The Practicing Poet. The goal was to present a lament in a list form and I had fun creating this one.