She Ties My Bow Tie
- She Ties My Bow Tie
What you thought was the sound of the deer drinking at the base of the ravine was not their soft tongues entering the water but my Love tying my bow tie. We were in our little house just up from the ravine. Forgive yourself. It’s easy to mistake her wrists for the necks of deer. Her fingers move so deftly. One could call them skittish though not really because they aren’t afraid of you. I know. You thought it was the deer but they’re so far down you couldn’t possibly hear them. No, this is the breeze my Love makes when she ties me up and sends me out into the world. Her breath pulled taut and held until she’s through. I watch her in the mirror, not even looking at me. She’s so focused on the knot and how to loop the silk into a bow. [End Page 58]
Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart (Persea Books, 2005) and of Apocalyptic Swing (Persea Books, 2009), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A recipient of awards and fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Paris Review, Civitella di Ranieri, and the Lannan Foundation, among others, she teaches in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and UNC Chapel Hill. She is Senior Poetry Editor at Los Angeles Review of Books. Her third book of poems, Rocket Fantastic, is forthcoming.
