found in a museum attic somewhere I don’t know
there’s an old tender touch shirt, red dimly
in the shadowed sky-blued glass above wooden
floor. it creaks upon meeting your feet. oh yes,
soft patterned, it’s flannel, that’s what it is.
was it mine or hers? yet there upon her contours
that dark mountain grove where kissing discovered
itself, and fumbling at buttons beneath the fleece.
standing night trees said nothing but blind.
eagerness wanted to become something more.
it didn’t rain till morning then.
neil reid © october 2013
accidentally written for Margo Roby’s Poem Tryouts: If You Build It
you know, if you’re walking in a museum and this or that thing pleases or interests you and all that is nice enough. then unexpectedly something becomes personal, and you recognize yourself in what you discover, find, not for the first time. like this. and pardon my being roughshod with this prompt, but it was just that one word, museum, that kept coming back to me. here, one very brief touch.
bearly audible 
You have reminded me of some favorite pieces of clothing – especially the ones I have adopted that belonged to someone else…
Our brains are like that…little museums and poems are those squeaky floorboards just wanting to remind you of something. 🙂
thank you jules. I suppose we need wash our clothes. but taking this tactile moment one step more, I remember a cat who loved nothing more than the scent of me. she’d find my laundry waiting, then roll and roll in the scent she found. better than catnip by far.
same for us people sometimes too. perfumes might be sweet, but there’s a human scent, each unique, that is simply – intimate.
Two in one! This answers my flannel prompt and works beautifully here. I love reading your poetry, Neil. Such a distinctive voice and always, the strong imagery.
thanks Margo, you’re very kind. 🙂 this poem discovered itself in very real time remembering, and written rather much just how it was for me, remembering down a length of thread.
a flannel prompt? amusing! sorry I missed seeing that one. prompts based upon textile textures? hmmm…