KEEP ME

I found a necktie on the street, a handmade

silk tie from an Italian designer. Keep me,

it pleaded from the trash. There’s probably

a story it could tell me of calamity days long ago.

Then yesterday, tying a Windsor knot around

my neck, I heard voices, Why have you got

that old tie on? Suddenly, Mason, Roy, Jimmy,

and Miguel were pulling at my arms, like it was

the ’80s again, a darksome decade, with another

hard-right president. My lips were not yet content

with stillness. We were on our way home

from a nightclub. I adore you, Miguel moaned,

but have to return now. Remember

death ends a life, not a relationship.