How to Find the Lost

Sabyasachi Roy

Check under the trash bag

you swore to take out yesterday.

Press your ear to the fridge;

its hum might give away the secret.

If all else fails,

try your grandmother’s couch pillow.

You know, the one

that smells like camphor and guilt.

 

It isn’t about the object itself—

but the act of searching,

like waiting for a train

that will never arrive,

but still has you checking the tracks.

 

I once found a piece of myself

beneath a streetlight,

its glow too dim to be comforting.

I waited there, pocketing the silence,

watching regret take the elevator,

hoping it fell just fast enough

to break itself at the bottom.

Sabyasachi Roy is a poet and photographer from West Bengal, India. His poetry has been published in Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, Quintessence, Dicey Brown, Mindfire Renewed, The Potomac, 13th Warrior, and several print and online magazines.