What Are They Waiting For?
The little face stares out at me
from the faded poster
in the front window of the Tops Market,
partially obscured by
an ad for Downy,
and one for L’il Debbie’s Snack Cakes,
Buy one get one free.
Stephen. His name is Stephen.
Quick math tells me
he’s been missing three years.
Makes him nine now.
This would not quite
be his face anymore.
Time goes on.
The poster is faded, curled at the edges.
It needs replaced, updated.
Stephen looks straight ahead
and will tomorrow from the same place
with the same face.
Passive, calm,
he waits for us
to find him.
A sequence of my poems has been published in a hardcover book entitled The Music of Leaving Poems by Tricia McCallum