You Find What You Didn’t Burn

The significant remains
Of life already lived, are
They lost now or found? Judith

Schalansky begins her book
On loss with a front-and-back
Page of double preamble—

First, a page-long list of all
The irreplaceable things
Lost while she composed the book;

Second, a paired list of all
Sorts of marvelous lost things
Rediscovered in that frame.

It’s wonderful, staggering
To contemplate together
So much coming and going

In such a small span of years.
The lost list, however, is
Mostly made of things destroyed,

Not misplaced, while her found list
Is rich with things that were thought
Lost only to reappear.

What’s destroyed can’t reappear.
It’s not what memory sees
In what lost-wax method leaves.