How could you have been so
careless? You have lost
your mother’s love.
You thought you’d put it away
inside a dresser drawer, painted
pine. This was before
the lake in your window, before
the Midwest and its loneliness.
You were still in California.
Perhaps you lost it in the move,
or one of the cats ate it. Small
and round, a ball of amber.
Lost
Nina Clements earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of the chapbook Set the Table, published by Finishing Line Press, and the poetry collection Our Mother of Sorrows, published by Urban Farmhouse Press. Originally from Pittsburgh, she works as a librarian in Madison, Wisconsin and is a proud member of Women Who Submit.