Hide and Seek
When you go searching for your soul you might find it
Tangled in blankets that hold in morning warmth
Discarded in a basket of dirty clothes on the washer
Stirred into oatmeal and berries heating on the stove
Washed down the drain during a steamy shower
Posing as an hour-long exercise routine on YouTube
Cawing from the rooftops when you walk the dog
Peeking from behind the images of a Zoom meeting
Sprawled out in pencil across a sheet of lined paper
Masquerading as the sandwich or yogurt for lunch
Hiding under eyelids closed for a postprandial nap
Wandering through paperwork that needs to be filed
Shaking its head over the long list of things to do
Buried under the mulch in the sleeping flowerbeds
Waiting in the mailbox with catalogs and the bills
Thawing with the chicken you took out for dinner
Scampering away from trash cans hauled to the curb
Tucked behind my back as I watch the nightly news
It beats me up the stairs when it’s time to go to bed
After forty years in California, Trina Gaynon moved to Oregon. She graduated from the University of San Francisco’s Masters Program in Creative Writing and volunteered for literacy programs in libraries and WriteGirl in Los Angeles. She currently leads a poetry reading group and writing salon at Senior Studies Institute in Portland. Poems recently appeared in Poetry East and Presence. More can be found in The Grace of Oregon Rain, Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, other anthologies, and numerous journals. Published volumes include An Alphabet of Romance from Finishing Line and Quince, Rose, Grace of God from Fernwood Press.
Amethyst Review 