Josephine Preston Peabody

I Was Lost

[Oh, the Day that I was Lost, I never shall forget:
I wake up in the night sometimes, and think It's Happening Yet.]

She let me go, a minute.
She said she would take care;
But she let me go, a minute:
And then-- She wasn't there.

Everything grew awful
That was good before.
And the Faces didn't look
Like people any more.

It made you feel like Wrinkles
All over you; and Cold.
It made you feel two hundred
And eighty-nine years old.

It was like being Homesick,
And Hurt; when no one Cares.
It was exactly like a Wreck;
And people smiled like Bears.

I thought that my own Mother
Had just--Forgotten me!
I thought that God had lost me,
Like a Penny in the Sea.

   *   *   *   *   *

The Noise all seemed to grow and grow
And roar until it drowned me.--
And I could only say,--'_I'm Lost_.'...
And then, at last,--they Found me,
--They Found me!