Missed appointments, mismatched socks,

Mislaid house keys, missing chargers,

The proverbial professor will get a pass

For a mind hijacked,

By musings

Of Plato or Kierkegard.

 

Actually

He lost his passport,

Packing for a trip.

His mind recklessly catapulted

Running amok to some unfinished task,

The moment abandoned.

The passport lost.

 

Once the unmoored mind slips away

It is easier to crawl through

A bureaucratic maze,

And replace the passport

Than to salvage the lost moment.

No agency restores time to

Thoughtless borrowers.

 

When I lost you,

Your tiresome family legends,

Your old boyfriend stories

Your quilt quarter display,

Your cataloging of curtains,

Had already slipped

My absent mind:

If only I had been present

To preserve

Them all.