TIMEPIECE

TIMEPIECE
for my cousin Dale

Stealing into a glass,
recounting beaux like snowflakes,
you have lost the watch,
childhood’s timepiece.

You mother tells us
it was your father’s last gift,
sent long ago,
after he left.

She says you kept it warm like a cat.
Easily you deny this,
your eyes contemplating ice,
lips still.

You are smiling.
Forgive us. We cannot hear
that the loss meant nothing,
it was only a watch.