two thumbs were knitted into each hand,
when one was done
you switched it over and the other thumb fitted.
At school, a piece of string
connected one glove to the other
so that when your thoughts were too far gone
on one game or another
you nevertheless came back in with two gloves on.
This is still done.
But it has to be said
gloves are more easily replaced than once they were.
No doubt it is good
that lost gloves become part of the neighbourhood.
They have traced
the cars, the bikes, the rails, and the sodden balls
crossing football fields.
Children own the streets
and gloves belong to the places where they meet.
Fossvogur, Reykjavík (2006)
