Serendipity

Anissa Bredemeyer

When I come to think of it,

I’m not entirely sure

Where I lost myself.

Maybe it was in those seven hours of class time,

Absent in scribbled notes and due dates,

Equations and definitions,

Or maybe in the homes of strangers or old friends

Who I no longer know the whereabouts of?

Was it in love lost and forgotten?

Perhaps words and friendly exchanges,

Greetings and goodbyes?

Did I lose myself somewhere

Along those roads driven on late nights

To places with people

Whose faces I won’t ever recall?

Did I leave myself behind

In books or shows or at the cinema?

In lonesome coffee shops?

Or crowded concert halls?

Or maybe it was in the ticking of clocks

And the counting of time,

The waiting for better times

That never came.

Come to think of it,

I’m not entirely sure I lost myself

Because I’m not completely sure I ever had myself

In the first place.

But maybe all these places

Are where I’ve somehow, collectively, found myself.