SandScript 2022

Where Are You?
Rachel Baird
If there was a row of houses
for all the people I have been,
you would find a different person
at every door.
“Where are you?”
Where am I?
I am at the street corner,
trying to find the courage to knock
on the door.
Ask any passing figure,
Any wondering pedestrian,
Anyone, who may have the faintest idea,
or the smallest clue
Of where you are?
I stare at my shoes,
tattered and old, “you need to get new ones”
But I like these,
they’re the only identifying item tying me together
with all the wondering faces,
All the strangers I do not know.
Some old friends,
some more reminiscent of an old foe,
Enemies to friends, to enemies again.
Where are you?
I feel a quiet tug at my stitch,
gentle as if not with intent to startle.
Glancing down,
it is me, but younger.
A gentler pull and sheepish grin.
Where am I?
She grabs me and pulls me away
from wondering face,
and all the passing strangers.
Where are we going?
She leads me away from the suburban streets
the dim glow of the light above me
Home.
The faces fade into figures,
figures into shapes,
shapes into nothing at all.
I walk home,
Alone in the dark.
70
71
Sim in Her Shop
Isaac Zierenberg
Exposure on Color Film