Comings and Goings

The box with all that’s left of you came in this afternoon. I thought I was prepared for all the treasures stuffed inside. I knew that I’d find colors popped and run to rainbows, almost garish on a stranger, but they were a style you wore with grace. Going through clothes pockets I found tissues and a shopping list, and the sleeves were folded over, how alike we are. 

I kept the clothes to wrap me in you. But the earrings, so flamboyant, didn’t match the mouse I am. Made me wonder how a peacock could give birth to me, incognito, in the shadows.

I boxed up the earrings, gave them up in hopes they’d brighten up some empty earlobes.

Yes, I had to part with you in hooks and studs and beads. Though I know you’re not in what I gave away, I miss you even more. 

published in Write Under the Moon