Torn Coat

T
Look what it is to have forgotten
the torn coat of  “Vecchia Zimarra”
from Puccini’s  La bohème and to remember
the other coats from Mt. Horeb on down,
and look what it is to give your own coat away,
three times now, and to walk shivering
in three different countries, oh tears
for the opportunity and tears for a horse,
all bone on a hillside without a blanket and
him laughing at me because there were no tears
left for a freezing gracehoper.
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