The Thing About Things

I’ve loaned a lot of things to a lot of friends

Like records and dresses and books

And a lot of the time I never see them again

And in a weird way I think that that worksBecause the thing about things is they start turn evil

When you start to forget what they’re for

And so if you’re not sure what you did with my sweater

I’ll just have to love you a little bit moreI had a ring it belonged to my grandfather

He was a mason and gay

And he was distant and bitter for all of my childhood

We never had much to sayHe wasn’t the type to give tokens of affection

So I stole ring when he died

And then twenty years on when I lost it at a bar

I thought that’s fine

I don't want him in my lifeBecause the thing about things is that they can start meaning things

Nobody actually said

And if he couldn’t make something mean something for me

I had to make up what it meantI can carry everything I need in one collapsing suitcase

I can carry everyone I love in one phone application

Built to maximize the facetime of the friends I’m bent on making

Actually I want to be alone

To mourn the loss

Of what it costI think it’s a poem and I think it keeps going

And I’ve borrowed and loaned lots of things

And 3 nights ago in the bar where I lost it the bartender gave me the ringI lie in bed

With my phone in my hand

Thinking what can I fix with which appAnd I call my grandfather

And he doesn’t answer

And I have to make peace with that factBecause the thing about things

Is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said

And if you’re not allowed to love people alive

Then you learn how to love people deadThe thing about things is that they can start meaning things nobody actually saidAnd if you’re not allowed

To love people alive

Then you learn how to love people dead