The Found Thing

Summary

It infiltrated, left a trace in my mouth

and I wanted it. Emboldened, it began

to colonise all those tight spaces.

So I let it bed itself under my fingernails

and drip into my tear-ducts. It felt so warm,

was my constant mute companion,

became one of us, on sports days,

shopping trips, vacations. I never asked

any questions, never wished to see its face.

One morning it was just not there.

I searched and searched, panic rising up

in my throat, and I couldn't manage

to say what it was I had lost, and how.