How Long before you noticed I wasn't there?

I am sure it is probably the best day to reach out to you from here under the snow laden ground where I am fused to the cement with salt and dirt and freezing water. There are 12 inches of snow upon me now and I don't know if you will ever find me. It is freezing. Although it is dark and light at the same time. I can feel the pressure of the snow and the ground does rumble. I don't know how long I will be here under this icy rubble.

The feelings I have worked all my life to keep you from are now my sad reality. I am cold I am wet and I am freezing my tips off.

I am your missing mitten and I am here to say; how long was I really missing before you noticed on that cold winter's day? I hope it was not long, I hope you noticed right away. I am your missing mitten and I have been missing for three days.

In your mind I hope you realize there are only two places I can be. Outside of your mom's office, or in the driveway near the tree. Your fingers got too toasty riding in the car, you took me off put me on the seat and that is when things really went ajar. My brother is still with you, and my cousins made it fine. It was me your leftie under mitten that didn't make the drive.

I know you are thinking OH NO! Don't worry you'll be fine. Maybe the wild will take me and I may still survive. It is something they don't tell you in mitten education, we just like socks have magic dematerialization. One day I am here and when the snow is all gone maybe you'll find me and realize nothing was ever wrong.

Until that magic moment in the middle of the Spring it looks like here I might be sitting when we meet again. At that time you'll wash me and tell me I'll be fine , you might thank me for waiting. You might say a whole big line.

You will probably mention how you knew I was here the whole time. Just waiting for my hand to find me in the driveway near the tree. More snow came yesterday I am hoping to survive but the truth is this I was never quite alive.

You probably replaced me. I hear that's what you do.

It is me your missing mitten that has now migrated to the zoo. I don't quite know how and it confused me at the time. I was stuck to the ground when a plow came through last night. I tried to hold on to the ground, then it was the plow I was stuck to. I rode the plow down the city streets, a whole city of snow lashed against you know who.

The pain I endured to get here was excruciating. You would not even recognize me, I am not quite at my best. I was your missing mitten now I am a dirty scrap of fabric buried in the snow.

What a tragic ending. A textbook textile drama.

Only my story did not stop just there. In my misery I was ripped from the snow by a large doe eyed hare. I was smuggled back into her den by the corner of the zoo. I am safe and warm with purpose again all because of you.

Now, I know you'll never find me and that is quite alright with me. I did not know there could be more for me than being in the cold, in the driveway, near the tree. Forgotten and lost for three days then grifted and tortured away and a way. Caught to the snow plow forever and a day.

My brother will miss me and I hope you won't neglect him, Afterall, I am just the leftie mitten you didn't need that day, just like a sock I dematerialized and went upon my way. I hope I am still in your mind and you think you'll find me there, when the snow has melted and you remember where I might be.

I was your missing mitten now I am labeled fabric waste, I reside now near the zoo with nature as my place.

I know you didn't mean to lose me and you feel terrible about it. There's others here too, scavenged by the hare. We line her den and keep her warm. Don't worry it is all just right, just don't go throwing any more mittens out or leaving rubbish behind. We have got to draw a line on this, stop throwing stuff away. Stuff that could be repurposed and used another way. I didn't ride the plow alone I almost forgot to say. I rode the wave of snow last night with a bumper, a tire and three bags of road garbage on the way.

After that, I did learn, that it is not the Hare and nature that should be treating the earth differently, it is you hand of my hand.

I am your missing mitten and I am glad I got to say humans in this life can afford to treat the Earth in a better way. Though my loss was unintentional, it is the Earth that has to pay, you're lucky that the Hare was cold and I was in the midst that day. For all us trash it doesn't always work out this way. Most of it is refuse and clogs our waterways.

Be well hand of my hand and I will be well just the same. It was good to be your mitten until you lost me that winter's day.