Lost purpose

The sergeant said that it was just a courtesy call

But he didn’t think he’d be able to help

As the trail had probably gone cold

“I should give it a few days”, he said,

"Chances are it'll  be back by then"

“If it was my wife”, I said, “you’d be out there looking”

“Only after a few days”, he replied

“We just don’t have the resources

To send out a search party,

Especially in this weather”

                ----------------------

It was long-gone before I realised it was missing

Long after the phone had stopped ringing

And the emails had dried up

I’d always been the go-to problem solver, in these parts

Not so much scholarly, as dogged

Even then, I assumed it was still there

Until the day of the great reveal:

It transpires that all life’s problems can now be solved

With the click of a mouse, or a quiet word in Siri’s ear

Instantly casting my raison d’etre to the wind

                ------------------------

“If we come across it, you’ll be the first to know”, he said

His platitude rubber-stamping my slightness

For an old man’s purpose is a disposable thing

No longer treasured

In this high–tech world