Do you remember how grocery stores used to give away a free book or volume of an encyclopedia, with a minimum purchase? Well, there’s a touching piece in the current New Yorker called “Off the Shelf” by Patti Smith in which she eventually shoplifts Volume I. I started thinking this would be a good assignment to give to my adult writing class – was there anything you coveted, that you just had to have?
I never stole anything, but I do remember falling in love with an orange mohair sweater when I was twelve or thirteen and having to wait for Christmas for it, which made it that much more wonderful when it was finally mine.
THE ORANGE SWEATER
When I was thirteen
what I wanted
more than anything
was a mohair sweater
bright as a blood orange
a huge cocoon
to cover my skinny frame
protect me
make me appear
bigger than
I was.
I remember the feel
plush like nothing in
our house of
glass and terrazzo
every surface sleek
Danish Modern
white and beige.
The sweater was magnificent.
The fibers retained
a wild animal vibration
split hooves
eerie green eyes
curved horns like
a cornucopia.
I knew goats
loved to climb
the way I loved to climb
into the canyon
by myself
and hear nothing
but my heart
and the trickle of springs.
The enormous orange sweater
blanketed my skinny arms
my small sore breasts.
The cable-knit pattern
would bind me until
I was old enough
to emerge into womanhood
and no longer need
to hide.
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