Secondhand CoatAuthor(s): Ruth StoneSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 12, No. 2/3, Extended Outlooks: The Iowa Review Collection ofContemporary Writing by Women (Spring - Summer, 1981), p. 321Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20155741 .

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Secondhand Coat Ruth Stone

I feel in her pockets; she wore nice cotton gloves,

kept a handkerchief box, washed her undies,

ate at the Holiday Inn, had a basement freezer,

belonged to a bridge club.

I think when I wake in the morning that I have turned into her.

She hangs in the hall downstairs, a shadow with pulled threads.

I slip her over my arms, skin of a matron.

Where are you? I say to myself, to the orphaned body, and her coat says,

Get your purse, have you got your keys?

321

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