Rags

I dust with a sleeve I loved

to look at on my arm.

Blue is gray now, like a patch

of sky filthy with clouds.

Why is piano dust always so gray?

Something about sound waves

and decay

that science could explain.

I didn’t need a scissors

the cotton was so rotted

by sun and sweat, the salt I made,

the sticky seawater. I was glad

to actually wear something out,

to have seen one thing

completely through,

even though I’d miss

being the person who wore it.