#764: A Poem, Finally

Monday, July 23, 2007

Red Jacket

At four or five or six years old,
my mother outfitted me with a red jacket
that had a hood and a double pocket on the belly
and a metal zipper that went tick-tick-tick in soft clicks
that could only be heard when you were inside it.

The fleece was on the inside where it counted,
and it had broad, soft elastic cuffs at the wrists
where my mother would stuff tissues
that I used to squash bugs
so that I could see the colour of their insides.
I knew that my insides were red,
but theirs were brown or yellow or green,
unless sometimes if they ate people, like mosquitoes.

I would find that jacket hanging in the closet in the winter,
and I would smell it and push its smooth insides into my face.
It meant things, that coat. Even then I knew.
It was the smell of rain-damp dirt with mashed in pine needles
from the trees way up north,
and my cold, chubby fingers in wet sand on grey days
when my uncle's curse kept the rain close;
it was the musky-sweet smell of rotten foliage
limping into the humic soil
and translucent snail shells snapping easy against
water-worn pebbles no bigger than my smallest fingernail.

That coat is a place.
That coat is a place even at the bottom
of the landfill it was thrown into
after my mother secreted it from the house.
Long from then, now, when I lie in bed,
older and sore and worried,
I am in that coat with fat cheeks
counting the beetle shells
that I have stashed in my sleeves.

Labels: the poetry

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6 comments:  paper napkin It's wonderful. Always a pleasure to read good poetry    blackbird I liked that very much.    paisley and a lovely poem at that... very well worth the wait... memories are like that... real,, sometimes... you can almost smell them....    Merrily Rolling That was beautiful. I felt that red jacket. I bet it was a nice place to be.    sara in tulsa Regular reader who very seldom comments... That was my favorite poem so far. Lovely. Been sending good thoughts your way for months.    savia I love this one - it gave me chills! (Which I'm sure your coat would take away ;)   blog comment guidelines post a comment ~ Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] ~ main page