Thomas Harrison Poet Personification

The Jacket

It still hangs there,
		     there on the back of my door.

“Wa d’y lev ut thur?” I can hear you say 
in that Chatterley-esque accent of yours,
rippling through me.

“It’s so I can smell you” 
I’d reply if I could:
a waft and scent of your neck,
hair… whenever I’d leave the
room. When I’d enter it. 
If I just pass by.

I’d tell you that, at night, my arms
loosen their flesh and peel on the cotton,
a needle sews blood afresh into my seams.
At night, the zipper puts my chest back
together and holds my knocking heart in 
place…. my ribcage ivory buttons, poached.
My beard grows longer to the left, matching the 
lopsided drawstring I pulled in a prank. At night, 
the frayed knitting weaves its way into my arm hair.
The smattering of chest hair that made you laugh is now 
indistinguishable from where a sewing machine once clamped 
shut. At night my fingers become the tips of each sleeve – just out 
of reach of your hand 
       
  but forever trying.

“It still hangs there” I’d tell you, if I could,
					     “there on the back of our door.”

It hangs there, it hangs there
	          		        still

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