How To Tie a Bow Tie
If you have never tied a bow tie you will struggle
Watching video after video on Youtube trying
To learn the mesmerizing sleight of hand
Of the magicians who wear bow ties
Hands flying like a loom’s shuttle
Back and forth and over under
Until a bow tie touches down
Perfect and ridiculous
Perched mid-flight
Upon his neck
Quixotic and
Disproven
Myth
With
Wings
Batwing
Or Butterfly
Metamorphosis
Elusive as the loop
You can not find behind
Until one moment your finger
Is pushing the final bow inside
And I am crying in frustration with
My father in the passenger’s seat trying
To help me feel the clutch give way underfoot
And I will always struggle and he is no magician
But now I drive standard and wear so many bow ties