I knew
when I saw you
I’d gotten it wrong
but it was too late
to hide the offering
unwieldy in my arms

pale green ribbon
whispered
undone
tissue paper
trembled
loss

wordless
upended
I
as you shook the garment
like a sheet
great billows
of fabric
wondrous
miscalculation
of every
binding
stitch

swallowed the words
of explanation
laughed with you
as you fit your head
through a sleeve
monstrous in your
small unknowing

the gone of you
so much larger
than the mere of you

that want
I clothed

I won’t tell you
as I won’t share
how I sleep
in the presence of absence
all the moments
I’ve taken
as mine