Ribbons
Most things that close up the other things in the world are either a zipper or a clasp. But ribbons still stay on our shoes, nowhere else on our bodies.
Necktie: Conventional, simple, like well-earning men (the knot will get tighter as the wearer gets richer and fatter)
Bra clasps: Invention of 20th century Fordism (can you imagine hooking up with a girl you just met, and she’s wearing a medieval corset?)
Belt buckles: Way too masculine and violent (vaguely hinting at patriarchal beating!)
That’s why doing other people's shoes is so flirtatious
The last raw intimacy in the human body, it’s a promise
of protection
Kids take years off their early lives to learn how to tie ribbons (not easy at all)
But only with a thumb and an index finger, they go undone
I’d ask
Would you tie my shoelaces?
I don’t remember you ever tying them for me
Now I’m twenty-nine years old and chose to wear shoes with no laces quite a while ago
(2022)