Lost And Found Poem by Edward Steinhardt

At times, it is the childhood scenario:
Losing the parents in the store or mall,
The puzzlement, the quickening panic,

Each aisle a corridor of emptiness-
Or total strangers. Running,
The child runs, runs blindly

Through a wall of tears,
The undreamed nightmare dreamed:
Abandoned, no way out

Among the grown-up racks;
The wails, the impassive looks of strangers,
Unrelenting fear.

The biological face, recognition,
Reclamation, reunion,
Lost and found,

A child's promise
Not to let go of that hand again
In strange places.