the sweater

my favorite sweater

a perfect fit

smells good

after all these years

seems to look great to passersby.

the best time of year is Fall,

Autumn, when the maples

are changing but clinging

and I can wear my sweater

as the outermost garment.

I wore it once, only once

against my irritated bare skin.

I was too far from home

to change it for another.

when I returned home,

I pulled it off as if it was

an unwanted foreign substance,

as if it had betrayed me

and never thought the same way

again about the stupid sweater.