No, no, not the children, who’ve long been found,

nursed and fed, clothed and bundled off to the treadmill.

No, not them.  It’s the mothers who are missing.

 

They’re wandering somewhere out there, thinking

they’ve found a new life, not at all like the old one

but not new, either.  Still in hiding, still searching faces,

 

looking for their children to bring back their innocence.

The children still care but that was such a time ago,

and real names are hard to come by.  It’s all too much

 

to try.  The lost mothers have found themselves

new men, they’ve made new children, new hiding places.

They never look back.  They refuse to be found.

 

(c) Ella Wagemakers, 00.59 Dutch time  (= 18.59 EST in the US)