she went missing midsummer.
she was last seen,
alive out by the highway
and with no clothes on.
when the police came she was gone,
like a squirrel on a tin roof at dawn.
a ghost.
a memory.
someone's little girl, lost.
then when she was forgotten,
by all but her mother, who carried
her picture always, she was found;
by boys who were not looking,
as the gold is often found,
in the ground-by dumb luck.
in a cabin,
in deep woods,
she was
decaying.