Yellow Coat
After Naomi Shihab Nye's poem, "Yellow Glove" (which I read in high school, it has stayed with me all these years)
A neighbor texted to say she likes my coat. She happened to look out her window as I passed. "Thank you," I said. "I'll probably be cold on the way home."
It was fifty degrees at two o'clock on a Friday. I was on my way to catch a train to the city, to see a friend and a concert. It would drop twenty degrees in the next few hours. The coat was a yellow wool "city coat" by J. Crew, thrifted for a fraction of the original cost.
We're in the season of many coats. The season of a different coat every day. Don't-know-what-coat season. Stuff a spare coat into your bag for later in case everything changes.
I wore the yellow coat again on Saturday. It was fine, but only in the sun. It was fine, but only if I wore a hat and gloves and jammed my hands deep into the pockets. Which they are deep. I like that, about this coat. But I forgot a hair tie and my hair fell into my face when I leaned over to zipper the coat. I've never had a "fashionable" coat, I wasn't expecting the restricted movement – I did size up! – and I'm not used to my own hair.
Sometimes when you change one thing – like your coat – it changes how you feel just enough that you can imagine feeling very different one day.
In this coat I feel awake and bright and cared for (by myself) and I will not delete later. I feel that I can have something nice, even if I can't have everything I want.
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I guess I do look at the weather more often than most people. I am out and about so much – and my job revolves around scheduling people and bikes for fittings and service. In my line of work, deadlines expand and contract based on the weather. If it's miserable out, riders give us grace. If it's seventy, everyone's in a rush, everyone wants their bike by the weekend.
Not everyone can [have their bike by the weekend].
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NEWSY STUFF
Sold out event! But, you can livestream! Wednesday, April 1 launch party for SEARCH WORK: A Collective Inquiry into the Job Hunt, edited by Rachel Meade Smith (OR Books, 2026), available for pre-order now, and also for sale at the event. My essay is in the book so YES I WILL sign your copy!
And – save the date! – SEARCH WORK reading (yours truly and a few other contributors) and Q&A on Thursday, May 14 at the Adams Street/DUMBO branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Special thanks to Katie Vermilyea at BPL for making this happen!
JUNCO AND WOLF, a story inspired by my year studying in Moscow, is forthcoming in Issue No. 33 of A Public Space. Stay tuned for a pub date and order link.
