Barbara J. Hamby

Lost and Found

For several weeks I’ve been looking for a poem I wrote fifteen or twenty years ago. I can’t find it in either computer or on a CD of poems in my file. There is no hard copy in my file drawer, either. I want to insert it in one of my memoir stories. I think I even remember the name of it. Sometimes I’ve had to hunt through hundreds of poems in several indexes when I can’t even remember the name of the poem.

It occurred to me that it might be on a back-up flash drive. Then I started looking for the flash drive. At last I had a reason to straighten up my messy office corner of the spare room. Unfortunately, I found the missing little drive before I’d even cleared half of my computer desk. But I tidied up the rest of it anyway. Now I have to get my courage up to check out what’s on the flash. If the elusive poem isn’t there, I may not be able to find it.

I do have some stacks of writing to be revised, but I hope I don’t have to search through those.

At the T.O.P.S. meeting this morning I shared a little vignette from a shopping trip a few days ago. In line at the check stand of a local store, I stood behind a very large woman (probably 350-400 pounds) wearing a shirt with the following printed on the back:

“Exercise never killed anybody, but why risk it?”

The diplomatic cashier complimented her on her jewelry. I kept my mouth shut.