Robin Richstone, The Accidental Metaphor

Robin Richstone
THE ACCIDENTAL METAPHOR

I am taking apart this necktie
your ex-wife never liked, putting the pieces
into my collection of bits of silk
you’ve sloughed off. This one,
from when you and she kept parrots,
is scarlet, blazoned with those birds,
irrepressible, cheerful, but provoking scorn
from the woman who already thought of leaving you,
a knot around your tropical, yearning heart,
as she looked past you with Antarctic eyes.
But back to the necktie. I unpin the birds’ wings,
remove the cautionary tags.
Now it can be something else.
Now it can be anything. I cut all the threads.

Bio: Robin Shectman Richstone has been published in Poetry, Beloit Poetry Journal, Briar Cliff Review, New England Review, North American Review, Sycamore Review, and other magazines.