Austin Wallace’s most recent poem to appear here was “To a Friend” (July 2016) 

Treasure Hunt
By Austin Wallace

On my 17th birthday
I remember
you left me clues
all over town
because love should be fun
not flat like champagne
on New Year’s Day.

You left me a message
to look in my glove box
where a paper heart read
“Where was our first date?”

I drove to Swan Lake
weaved through toddlers and goslings
until I found the note on a tree:
“Where did we meet?”

At Food Lion I wandered
past detergents, frozen dinners
until my boss told me:
“She’s waiting at her house.”

Churning dust
I drove through trailer parks
until I found your blue Honda
parked outside a double wide.

You answered the door
wearing only overalls
your skin was so pale
like scoops of ice cream.

I have since wasted
years getting lost
in foreign cities,
romancing exotic beauties,
always failing to reprise
our hearts’ joyful noise