I lost my job at a bookstore.

I lost my job at a bookstore.

My boss thought I had taken money from the register.

I lost the address of my Big Blue Marble pen-pal in Malaysia.

I had written to her for many years,

And then not written to her for many years.

I lost many friends in the same way:

Aaron from Ridgewood Court,

Eric from the dorms at San Francisco State,

India from Oregon,

Michelle from Headlines.

I am lucky that I haven’t lost their names yet.

I have lost some of those.

I lost my prescription Ray-Bans with the red frames.

Someone took them out of my 1993 Honda Accord,

Which Angela had forgotten to lock.

I lost the chopsticks she bought me in the year of the sheep.

I told my son I lost the flags he had collected,

But I had thrown them away.