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Winter 1994 • Vol. XVI No. 1 • Poetry |

Suits and Ties

That was who you were then    Sam    clad in a tie and one of those cheap boys’ suits you found in a store on 1st avenue at a close-out sale    you tried on one after the other    5-7 dollars apiece    and you bought six or seven with one thrown in for free    it was as if you had found the treasury of some glorious bank which you then took home and tried on for your lover

Now Sam has a tie collection so large it takes up a whole closet    ten white and three pink cotton shirts and a few off-white linens and perhaps a celestial blue the color of your faded jeans    your shirts are lined up in the closet all with perfect collars buttoned just up under your chin    and a collection of glorious hats    these are your serious clothes to be worn with rich wool suits having outgrown the narrow cuts of boys for the richer drapes of material along the length of your thigh    cut like the suits of the richest men    you have a closet full of beautiful polished shoes and linen socks and just the right cotton underwear to fit your ample butt and thighs and skinny yellow belly

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