I have put my life on like clothes.
\nA boy\u2019s shirt, short pants.
\nLeather shoes and tangled laces
\nlike the skin of my body
\nrolling in dirt,
\nracing through the grass,
\nscuffed on the rough stone,
\nlike walks that approach cathedrals.
\nBlue chambray clothes like my father\u2019s.
\nBelts with brass buckles.
\nThe smell of my father\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n
Later the suits and ties
\nof cotton and silk.
\nThe clean undergarments
\nlike a well read book.
\nThe face of a man well trained,
\nsharing a common cup,
\nspeaking the language of the world.
\nGoing down streets prepared for me,
\nand the crowds of me
\nmaking the noise of life.<\/p>\n
Slumber without dreams,
\nand the open buttons of age
\ngathering in boxes.
\nCollections of nothing.
\nAnd coats taken off
\nand never put on again.
\nForgetting hats, and shoes becoming slippers,
\nand finally bare feet
\nreturned to me worn out.<\/p>\n
Then suddenly I see what\u2019s happening.
\nI am growing old.
\nI am taking my clothes off to die.
\nReturning them to where they came.
\nI am becoming what I was,
\nwhat I am,
\na child full of air and play.
\nNo longer burdened by accumulations
\nof life,
\nbut open to sun and rain,
\nrough stone and dirt and happiness,
\nto be a real boy again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have put my life on like clothes. A boy\u2019s shirt, short pants. Leather shoes and tangled laces like the skin of my body rolling…<\/p>\n