"sweater"

"sweater"
written on a day of indecisive weather by jake kilroy.

she had canvas stretched over her bones
and the tracks of muddy birds adorned her,
along with clean feathers and waves of barley,
somewhere in a loft on the upper east side.
barely a word trampolined out of her mouth
without a smile going up like a circus tent,
and her breasts floated through the words
of every poet that tried his damnedest to sit still.

her eyes lit up like like porch lights,
and her cheeks billowed like hot air balloons
when she could hardly keep the freckles on
in a sweater that drove the dirt roads
of east coast men's hearts wild.

there was a smooth grip to her lips
when she laughed in winter,
which was almost always.
she lived most in spring,
loved hardest in summer
and looked best in fall.
but it was christmas
that made the hair
on her neck
stand up
and
it was
new year's
that made her
heart shake like
she had been loved
and worshipped and
called upon by the men
of every american city to
simply go out and buy coffee
and walk the length of the streets
to let them know next year would be fine.