In response to Until I Can by my beautiful, and very pregnant, Beloved. (Go read that first.)

Until you can, and thereafter

May 27, 2010

I’ve gotten used to him
unfinished
with his hat labeled “Brown” and  “Dark Brown” in pencil.
I think of myself that way, sometimes,
wearing a hat marked to fill in later,
and a face contently hiding in the shadows
beneath the broad brown-not-brown brim.

Is he asleep?
He smiles enigmatically,
dares you to guess.

I’m sure you’ll finish some day,
but until you can,
I kind of like him this way.

And, even when you can,
I think this is how I’ll remember him.