an old jacket
my wife’s lips
on a grocery note
Comment: a poem with sentimental tones set in a familiar context. The ‘old jacket’ seems to suggest that the protagonist is of a certain age. While he’s pulling his cloth out of the wardrobe, an old piece of paper peeps out of the pocket: a note from several years ago with the wife’s lipstick mark still on it. A trace of the poet’s past that has held out so far, reverberating in the present time for only the duration of the poem.
A delicate and deeply human piece of work, full of shareable suggestions. The warmth of this (past) manifestation of love contrasts with the cold list of objects on the ‘grocery note’ in the closing line.
