Lost

The hours stretch long—
    a vast desert
    of silence

    where echoes of yesterday’s words fade into the wind.

Perhaps she’s chasing the horizon,
    steering a boat
    through uncharted waters

    where cell towers don’t dare to reach.

Maybe the forest called her name,
    and she answered—
    a compass in hand,

    and the wild in her heart.

Or could it be a dragon?
    Not the fiery kind,
    but one of shadows and whimsy,

    whisking her away to a castle that’s just slightly out of range.

What if she’s cracked the code of time itself?
    Traveling to eras unknown—
        a Victorian ball,
        a Martian sunrise—

        her phone left behind, and me with it.

More likely, though, it’s something smaller.

A misplaced charger,
    a busy afternoon,
    life happening as it does,

    leaving me to wonder how silence can feel so impossibly…
                                                            loud.