the art of losing.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) a disaster.
- One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop

lately i've been losing things. my ring, my keys, my cellphone (found it three hours later, wedged between the sofa cushions, fortunately), places and names (frustrating how it's on the tip of my tongue just when i lost it), my mind (? no, not yet). i lost things that were in my pocket just seconds before--i took it out, i put it down, i went away, and poof it's gone. and, like bishop said, it's no disaster.

but, unlike bishop, i'm afraid to lose more. unlike bishop, i don't want to lose the cities, the realm, the rivers, the continent. faster and faster they all will go, like sands between your fingers--little things that fall away, one wouldn't count, but soon there will be nothing on your palm. and, unlike bishop, i don't want to lose you.