NOT MISSING

Television flashes an alert
about an elder missing man
whose mind Alzheimer's chose to hurt.
When last seen he was wearing tan.

His wife was only out a while
on the weekly meds and grocery run.
She refuses to be reconciled
blaming herself for what he's done.

Deputies, volunteers and kin
are searching the rural neighborhood
and the river running through the glen
as well as where the old gin stood.

An outdoorsman for all of his life
but now his stride and mind unsure.
yet old memories, in him, still run rife.
It's present times which seem a blur.

They search the day and freezing night
all recalling how he used to be.
Through both fatigue and brush they fight.
Come dawn all puddles are icy.

A nephew thinks back when he last saw him,
how the old man talked of hunting deer
and then the boy followed a whim
to an old stand in wooded hollow, near.

There sat the old man against decayed stand's tree
a slight smile on his frozen face,
exactly where he meant to be.
Where souls run free and big bucks race.