VELCRO® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK
I have shoes that I wear for biking
After lacing them up I wrap
them even tighter with a Velcro®
fastener I pull across my instep
After I ride I carry my bike
back upstairs to my apartment
and sit down, exhausted
I dread taking my shoes off
because when I open
the Velcro® fastenings I feel
the fasteners’ pain at being
ripped apart
It may not be true, but I think
a bit of the fuzzy (or female)
side of the fastener dies
at each unfastening
There is no way I know of
to ease the rupture of this union
—from Rattle #17, Summer 2002
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Jack Foss: “I began writing poetry as a child because my mother seemed so proud of a dead brother (an uncle I had never seen) who had been able to rhyme words. If there’s a heaven, what I’d like to do when I get there is apply to become an adopted brother of Emily Dickinson—that is, if she’ll have me.”
