Aaron Magloire
Laundry Day
That long, sprawling month, we nearly lived
together, which is to say I never did
duplicate my key as friends told me I should,
but I folded your clothes at the same time as mine.
It was efficiency, not love, even if hindsight’s
unconcerned with semantics, even if
I spent too long trying to find a match
for all your standalone socks.
We were gentle with one another.
You looked beautiful in my blue sweater.
You looked beautiful asleep. Some days
I wonder if I was wrong, after all,
not letting that small tenderness
be enough.
Variegation
Joseph’s coat of many colors,
some translators say,
may in fact have been nothing
but a coat with long sleeves—
no collage of color
worth writing about. In other words,
forget what you have heard.
The idea is beautiful, but
most truths are wholly
plain, wholly disappointing.
Let me put it this way:
I believed I loved you
vibrantly. That was just the right word
up until it wasn’t.