The Coat

missing hearts

The Coat

there is the tweed coat
with a London label
gold, puce & brown
that was lying
for a long time
on a hospital chair
as a pillow
then in a cold room
with a warm hand
holding a warm hand
and in a cold room
with a warm hand holding
a cold hand
then in the freezing
parking lot
where she looked back
at the hospital
then at her hands
holding on to the car
which except for
his clothes & billfold
was empty inside

Reviews

[Toni Prehoda Kahler]

This piece sits raw and open, the images of coat and hands telling the story. The coat no longer where it belonged, as backdrop to the cold/warm contrast of hands. I am in awe of this work.
I love the ending, this is where the stark emotion of what was building up in earlier lines comes to fuller meaning. Now I know whose hands are whose, now I see/feel her full grief.
Your words make this a movie scene for me, and I am fascinated with the expert lines, not one word wasted, nothing in excess. I like the calm lead in, the pace that quickens the middle, the swirl of emotion at the end. The metaphor of empty car with only his coat-pocket items - wow!
I am thrilled to be reading your poems!

[W.k.kortas]

The learned Mr. Hart is spot-on here; this piece is deceptively simple, wrapping a whole tapestry of love and loss around a simple piece of clothing and simple acts. The short, sharp lines create an air of being stunned and/or disconnected, which is a wonderful device. Top-shelf writing, powerful without any loss of control.

[Ed Hart]

You've done it again. Masterful! Only a mature heart could tell this story simply, through an old coat, and hands...There's no separation between the poet and the poem; you got one, you got the other.