Ode To A Forgotten Tiger

It was sitting in an outline of verdant leaves and brown stalks of a tree
on a frigid, oyster-coloured day.
It was foggy and icy as we searched the streets of Fitzroy North.
A plush tiger was found amongst the shrubs and alleyways.
It was a burnt, starchy orange with black stripes wiped across its body.
I had thought of putting this object into my mouth.
It would taste crumbly, salty and filling.

This tiger was lost.
Forgotten.
I imagined who would have owned this little object.
Perhaps it slipped out of a babe’s hand?
I wondered if she yearned for her toy back; wailed and howled for this particular plush.
Her guardians searching inside and outside of their cottage house, in the streets of Fitzroy North.
Turning the shirts and pants up and down, looking for this little tiger.
That had slipped out of their babe’s hand.
That was now in mine.

Or perhaps this soul was simply forgotten.
That nobody had even thought twice.
Nobody had turned each part of the house inside out and upside down.
That it was simply a lost toy that nobody wanted.
Maybe it was just a toy.
A piece of rubbish sitting on an ordinary tree on an ordinary day.
This thought made me mournful.
Maybe the toy had slipped out of the babe’s hand and lay there as the stroller was pushed away,
It lay there without a whisper of regret.

Maybe it was bought in a magnificent store with golden doors.
Perhaps people walked in those doors to buy sublime gifts that would warm children’s hearts. Exchanged from one hand to the next with smiles opened across small faces with vegemite corners.

Or it was bought in a shop that was adequate. In a runty side street on a Tuesday afternoon at 3.06 by a distant uncle with intentions to impress a mother or two.

Who will have this little toy next?
Maybe I will simply place it gently in the outline of verdant leaves and brown stalks of a tree on frigid, oyster coloured day. Not lost, not discarded, simply enjoyed briefly and left to offer mystery to another,

It shall be left for somebody else
As It was lost.
Now it is
Found.
And now it shall be found,
once again.