Shadow Walking
Your twisted fingers worked pastry,
stumbled over seams and hems;
the tendons were cut to reclaim them.
The operation failed: your joints
had lost forever their vain suppleness.
Gloves concealed mutilation,
navy leather, white cotton.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Your face was cold as mercury
when I kissed you in your hospital bed.
July roses crabbed from behind iron railings
as I walked home.
The days after your death carried the freight
of letter and condolence.
Red roses danced on your coffin.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My bones have served apprenticeship to yours:
they are two parts liquid and I am dissolving.
I write myself into this quilt of words
and remember the camouflage gloves.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
You were quick as an eel,
and in your shadow
I lumbered and stuttered underwater
while you skimmed the surface.
But now I have sewn myself
into my own skin,
taken breath
and floated upwards.
Page(s) 18-19
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