Wanting to deconstruct layers: there are three on the top.
- A raggedy little striped shirt that only reaches to the elbow, gone thin, with tiny holes, from so many washings, Nina gave it to me. The thinness of that cotton so blissful in heat.
- Over which a soft Danskin jacket of brushed cotton, suede-like in feel, deep red on the outside deep lavender on the in (w hoodie to match ), found washed and pressed in a box in the lobby of an ex-boyfriend's apt building; the Lobby of Many Things, or Hoarders Lived There!)
- Over which my mother's classically designed brown raincoat, very light, with pockets and another hood, while
- around my neck I wore two scarves, very sheer, one with gold thread running through and falling off behind me, something my friend Kathryn gave me; it was wrapping for a present,
-and another sheer very sheer pink scarf, did I buy this one myself, at some cheap fair NYC?
- The boots are vegan (read: plastic), left behind by abovementioned Nina's sometime tenant, a young woman who left them behind when she joined the airforce and became a paratrooper;
- as for underwear, you may ask, and I will say,
Exactly.
- And speaking of what you don't…see, my head is tilted too far back for a glimpse of the samurai knot with a small but slightly splashy kiki fountain vamping out of it, and all those tendrils drifting down.
- Re what you do see? My camera smile; never unself conscious unless candid.
Thank you to the nice neighbor who took it! And nice meeting you, Dave, and also Phillip, the gorgeous black deaf* youth who lived in the house next door. (PYT, don'tcha wanna ask me out??)
*think of the advantages he would have, while going out with me!
Thus I realized that I was walking around in gifted clothing. Except for the navy pants that tucked into the Cossack-style xcellnt monsoon boots with too-long laces, all of it was given me.
Above me the sky was such a brilliant blue, and the clouds so bright white, it hurt to look up, even as softer, lower, fog draped them and there came down the lightest fractions of water; so light they just caught the sun and were tiny flashes of silver in the air, not nearly enough to dampen anything, but falling upon us like grace.
And there I was, walking with Sammy through it, dressed in gifted.
