I'm looking for my user's manual,
the one I'm sure my parents were given
when someone bundled me up
and sent me home
from the Lila J. Post Memorial Hospital
in Battle Creek, Michigan,
60 years ago,
the manual describing care and upkeep,
feeding,
cleaning,
avoiding undo wear and tear.

Did they even read that manual?
Was it discarded with my packaging?
Did it disappear at the bottom of a desk drawer
with all the other unreferenced guides
from countless other products?

Or did they use it so often
–sometimes in a panic–
that it eventually disintegrated?

I need it.
They are gone,
and,
at long last,
I'm taking over.

Where are my instructions?

Text and
image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.