A Time with a New Lover

There comes a time with a new lover
when you have to tie your shoes
in front of her, and she will see
how slow you are, how clumsy, how

the ends don't match up and the loops
have always slipped and it's so hard
to make the knot cinch where you think
it ought to cinch and you know, while

your face turns red, because you are
too fat, that just as in Mrs Murdoch's
first grade class, in the end, in the end,
you will have untie the mess you have made

and start all over again, and go even
slower because you are flustered, and
she realizes you are stout and old, and
it will always take this long to go for a walk.