Poem: "Lost"

[shiori_makiba]

Poem: Lost
by shiori_makiba / Ashley Weyer

Inspired by a prompt by alexseanchai for the November Creative Jam. Comments and constructive criticism is welcomed.

“Lost”

Over the course of history, many stories have become lost.
The reasons why are legion, for they are many.

Perhaps the language is also become lost.
Its once many speakers lay cold and silence.
Their tales are buried with them.
Just one more set of ghosts.

Sometimes the language becomes fractured with pieces of itself disappearing into the ether.
The result is a rich tapestry chewed into fragments by word-eating moths.
Some try to fill in those empty spaces but the repair is often a thread-bare and mismatched patch.

Sometimes the language lives and story-teller lives.
But none or too few listen to their words.
They speak but are not heard.
And when they stop speaking, more become lost.

Even committing the stories to material than memory does not help.
Stone can be worn down or broken into pieces.
Paper can be burnt or soaked or eaten by insects.
Metal can be scratched or melted.
And when they are, the precious words they hold slip away once more.

Sometimes it is nature that takes the stories away.
Other times is it is man.
Either way, they are gone.
Hidden in the Library of Lost Stories.

But lose not your hope, dear reader.
Because, sometimes, someone finds one a missing story and brings it back to us.
And that is cause for celebration.