Your Black Overcoat

Your Black Overcoat

is wool

woven with threads of deep blue

a plaid so unobtrusive its

patterns work only

on the back side of the mind

giving some texture

some variation,

even the darkest nights

are peopled with blacker figures

shadows, geometries

visible only

in movement

Your overcoat sways

across my legs

at mid-calf

swings like part of each evening

it wears me

and we are wrapped together

in your arms, your legs

your rising chest,

your beating heart, my friend

gone silent now five years

Clothing relaxes

with time

the worn elbows, knees

or the shoes

misshapen to match perfectly

the human foot

At first the coat

hung oddly

on my shoulders

the lining of one sleeve

torn where your hand

had caught the seam the

oddness of its fit

was a constant companion

keeping me never comfortable

always conscious

I've grown accustomed

to the coat or

it to me

my friend

you have managed

your imprint into my

body

and deeper

geometries hardly distinguishable

a weaving of two one, partly

gone

the other still

somewhat here

wrapped in this coat.