Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

Frankenstein's Fingers

It’s 11:30
and I am sitting at Starbucks
shivering.
Winter is here.
Last night
I went out looking
for gloves
at Target.
Everything there was Made in China
and Made of Crap.
I tried on one pair of gloves.
They made my fingers look like Frankenstein’s,
all round and distorted and stitched
like a drunk man got hold of a sewing machine.
Even the “designer” gloves were crap.
They had fancy names
but they were lined with acrylic.
Acrylic doesn’t keep your hands warm.
Neither does polyester.
I should know.
I have a pair of those polyester polartech gloves
and they never kept my hands warm.
Now I see people walking around in the same gloves
smiling,
and I know their hands have to be freezing.
Unless they’ve gotten so numb
they don’t even realize their hands are cold.